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Guinea Eliminates Sleeping Sickness as Public Health Threat

The World Health Organization has congratulated Guinea for eliminating human African trypanosomiasis or sleeping sickness - a neglected tropical disease. This is the first neglected tropical disease to be eliminated in the country and represents an important achievement in the field of public health on World Neglected Tropical Diseases Day, which is observed every year on January 30th.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General said that the announcement is both a testament to global progress against neglected tropical diseases and a beacon of hope for nations still battling human African trypanosomiasis.

African trypanosomiasis is a vector-borne parasitic disease spread by Tsetse flies. Symptoms may include fever, headaches, joint pain, and, in advanced stages, neurological symptoms including confusion, sleep disturbances, and behavior changes.

There are seven other countries validated by the WHO for eliminating human African trypanosomiasis gambiense. These are Togo (2020), Benin (2021), Ivory Coast (2021), Uganda (2022), Equatorial Guinea (2022), Ghana (2023) and Chad (2024). One country, Rwanda, has eliminated the rhodesiense form of the disease as a public health issue, as validated by WHO in 2022.

InFocus

|Ammar Obeidat/MSF

(file photo).

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