Medical screening campaign for sleeping sickness in Chad. Early 2000, The World Health Organization has set up an ambitious campaign to test for sleeping sickness (African Human trypanosomiasis): the first step on the way to disease elimination. Photo Credit: Patrick Robert-Corbis/Getty Images
Health ChadDream Come True: No More Sleep Sickness!
Not only has Chad eliminated its first neglected tropical disease (NTD) — the gambiense form of the sleeping sickness — as a public health problem, but it has also become the 51st country to do so, bringing the 100-country target by 2030 set by the World Health Organization (WHO) that much closer to reality.
“I congratulate the government and the people of Chad for this achievement,” says Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “It is great to see Chad join the growing group of countries that have eliminated at least one NTD. The 100-country target is nearer and within reach.”
As set in the Road map for neglected tropical diseases 2021–2030, WHO wishes to reach the 100-country target by the dedecade’s end, and Chad marks the first step beyond the midpoint to the global threshold. The sleeping sickness – or human African trypanosomiasis – can cause flu-like symptoms but also behaviour change, confusion, sleep cycle disturbances, coma, and often, death. Improved access to early diagnosis and treatment, surveillance, and response led to Chad’s conquest against the deadly disease. The gambiense form of the human African trypanosomiasis has been eliminated in Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Togo, and Uganda. As for the rhodesiense form, it has been eliminated as a public health problem in Rwanda only.
