Prevalence of sleeping sickness very high

Preliminary results in the Republic of Congo (ROC) indicate a very high prevalence of human African trypanosomiasis, better known as sleeping sickness, MSF-Belgium reported last week. “Up to now we have actively screened 1,570 people in Gombona town and surroundings”, said country coordinator Sonja van Osch. “There we found an overall prevalence of 6.5 percent. This is terribly high”. Sleeping sickness is a fatal neurological disease if left untreated, though even the current cure can kill, MSF noted. MSF began its sleeping sickness programme when it noticed signs that the disease may have reached epidemic proportions in parts of the country. The health system is in ruins after years of civil war and there is no reliable epidemiological data, according to MSF. “We felt that we should start an intervention in Plateaux, since we suspected that province to be one of the centres of the epidemic,” van Osch said. The MSF team, based in Gamboma, is currently conducting a survey, screening the population in Plateaux, which borders the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Levels are averaging around five to six percent (with a local peak of 24.6 percent). Treatment is being offered to people who test positive. Meanwhile, MSF introduced a 15-metre long boat to its fleet for use in its sleeping sickness programme. The boat, named the Tse Tse, recently travelled 400 km up the Congo River from the capital Brazzaville to transport goods for a treatment centre in Mpouya, before moving on to Bwemba to meet an MSF team in Gamboma, where the boat will be based. With a capacity of four tons, the Tse Tse will be used to reach outlying villages on the river where MSF is screening people for sleeping sickness.