Campaign against sleeping sickness shows progress

The government of the Central African Republic (CAR) has intensified its nationwide campaign to eradicate sleeping sickness. "Sleeping sickness is a major problem of public health in CAR," Dr Auguste Nangouma, coordinator of the Programme National de Lutte contre la Trypanosomiase Humaine Africaine (PNLTHA), told IRIN on Monday. He said sleeping sickness had disappeared from CAR from 1960 to 1980, but then had reappeared in three areas - Ouham in the north, Nola in the southwest and Haut Mbomou in the southeast. Nangouma said that because of a number of strategies and campaigns, sleeping sickness was again decreasing in the three active areas. "We detected 1,069 new cases in 1998; 869 in 1999; 993 in 2000; and 747 in 2001 in the three areas combined," he said, noting that CAR was the third most-affected nation in the subregion after neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the Republic of Congo. The most recent campaign against the sleeping sickness conducted by the PNLTHA took place in Batangafo in Ouham, 383 km north of the capital, Bangui, from 30 August to 25 September, and was financially supported by the World Health Organisation (WHO). "The 25-day campaign allowed my team to examine 5,907 out of over 15,000 inhabitants of Batangafo, and 57 new cases of sleeping sickness were detected," Nangouma, who led the mission, said. He added that the 57 cases were immediately admitted to the local health centre, where they were receiving appropriate drugs free of charge as part of a nationwide programme supported by WHO. "Apart from social mobilisation and detection, we have also promoted the use of mosquito nets soaked with products noxious to the tse-tse fly," added Nangouma. In its campaign, the PNLTHA is being supported financially and logistically by WHO, the government of France, and Medicos Sin Fronteras (Doctors Without Borders) of Spain. A number of strategies have been put in place, including the training more medical personnel on sleeping sickness, and the establishment of subregional (Sudan, Chad, DRC, Congo, Cameroon, CAR) coordination to prevent the disease from moving from one country to another. Nangouma said 1 percent of people suffering from sleeping sickness who came to hospital died, while others recovered, but suffered permanent secondary effects such as paralysis or loss of speech. [For more information on the prevention and treatment of sleeping sickness]