In Guinea, towards the elimination of sleeping sickness

Installation of a screen and a tsetse fly trap in the Dubreka region, near Conakry.

© RFI / Igor Strauss

By: Igor Strauss |

Caroline Paré Follow

3 min

Human African Trypanosomiasis (HAT) or sleeping sickness is a parasitic disease transmitted to humans by the bite of the tsetse fly.

As Guinea neared the elimination of sleeping sickness, the Ebola and Covid-19 epidemics ended HAT control programs and allowed the tsetse fly to proliferate.

Publicity

A report by Igor Strauss

The inhabitants of remote mangrove areas are the main victims of this deadly disease, because the biotope is favorable for the development of the insect vector.

Today, the

PNLTHA (National HAT Control Program)

and

IRD (Research Institute for Development) teams

have resumed the fight based on 3 main axes:

  • Screening of the last patients to treat them

  • Vector control to limit tsetse fly populations

  • Medical research to improve treatments.

What are the results of this struggle?

How to access the last patients?

How to raise awareness in a post-Ebola context where mistrust of scientists has increased?

[IN IMAGES, IN PICTURES]

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