Tsetse and Trypanosomiasis Information

9 health threat in sub-Saharan Africa, spreads among people bitten by the tsetse fly and is fatal unless treated. Because early-stage infection produces few symptoms, it is thought that only 10 percent of patients with the disease are accurately diagnosed. FIND and the World Health Organization will collaborate in seeking to identify, test and implement diagnostics that will increase the likelihood of early detection of HAT and the opportunity for treatment. “The spread of human African trypanosomiasis has reached epidemic proportions in regions of Africa. There is clearly a great need for a simple, accurate and cost-effective way to diagnose this disease so that it can be better treated and controlled,” said Dr Giorgio Roscigno, CEO of FIND. “FIND is committed to identifying and implementing diagnostics for infectious diseases, and we look forward to securing partnerships and initiating field testing.” “Existing diagnostics for sleeping sickness are difficult to implement in remote, impoverished settings,” said Dr Jean Jannin and Dr Pere Simarro, from the Neglected Tropical Diseases Control Department of the World Health Organization. “We look forward to working with FIND to advance new diagnostic tests that could revolutionize human African trypanosomiasis control.” “Developing point-of-care tests to direct sleeping sickness treatment will greatly simplify patient care, allowing for early case detection, simpler and safer treatment, and higher rates of cure that will improve disease management and could lead to the elimination of the disease as a public health problem,” said Thomas Brewer, M.D., senior program officer, Infectious Diseases division, Global Health Program, at the Gates Foundation. Currently, diagnosis of sleeping sickness is made by serologic examinations followed by microscopy, which is laborious, insensitive and costly. FIND’s and WHO's efforts will be focused on developing tools that will be simple to use and effective in the remote field conditions that exist where it is most prevalent. In addition to developing appropriate diagnostic technologies, the objectives of the programme include establishing field research sites for clinical studies and evaluating prototype products.