Neglected tropical diseases: Buruli ulcer and sleeping sickness

Audio 48:30

Sleeping sickness is transmitted by tsetse flies, iStock / Attardog

By: Igor Strauss

Buruli ulcer is a chronic infection that affects the skin, sometimes the bones, and which can cause permanent deformity. The mode of transmission of this disease is still unknown: it is therefore difficult to prevent it. Sleeping sickness, or African trypanosomiasis is linked to a parasite, transmitted by tsetse flies, in some twenty countries in sub-Saharan Africa. . It affects animals like humans and if left untreated, it can be fatal. The number of cases has dropped sharply over the past 10 years, but vigilance is required to confirm this progress.

Publicity

What do we know about these two neglected tropical diseases? Where is the research on the subject? How to make the correct diagnosis? What treatments exist or are being developed?

  • Dr Jean Jannin , President of the French-speaking Society of Tropical Medicine and International Health , ex-Society of Exotic Pathology
  • Dr Dramane Kaba , Physician-Entomologist-Researcher, Senior Researcher at the National Institute of Public Health. Director of the Pierre Richet Institute (IPR) in Bouaké in the Ivory Coast (research center of the National Institute of Public Health). And also member of the management committee of LAMIVECT International Joint Laboratory on Vector Diseases.
  • Dr Vincent Jammoneau,  researcher in parasitology at the Institute for Research for Development (IRD) , has been conducting research on sleeping sickness for more than 20 years mainly in West Africa, and has been coordinating a project since 2016 elimination in Ivory Coast
  • Pr Jacques Chandenier,  Emeritus Professor of Parasitology, Mycology, and Tropical Medicine of the Faculty of Medicine of Tours. Secretary General of the French-speaking Society of Tropical Medicine. Treasurer of the French Society of Medical Mycology.

For further : 

Awareness-raising film made in 2017 in Ivory Coast: "The disease at the end of the track" 

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