Can Africa end the curse of sleeping sickness?

Once the bane of Sub-Saharan Africa, sleeping sickness is close to being wiped out, scientists say.

The disease, transmitted to humans by the tsetse fly, was once a curse in 30 countries.

But a co-ordinated global fight to eradicate it has borne fruit, leading to a 95% fall in cases over the past 15 years, according to the World Health Organisation.

In 2018, the agency recorded only 977 cases, compared to a peak of 300,000 in the 1990s.

Its hope is that sleeping sickness will enter the history books by 2030.

Sleeping sickness is caused by the Trypanosoma parasite, which is transmitted to humans by the tsetse when it takes a blood meal.

The disease is fatal unless diagnosed and treated rapidly.

Early symptoms are severe headaches and muscle aches and fever, with sufferers feeling lethargic and sleepy by day, then awake exhausted at night.

Neuropsychiatric and sensory disorders follow, then a coma before death ensues within months or sometimes even years later.

But scientists say the dreaded disease is on the ropes.

“After a century of fighting it, sleeping sickness is on the verge of being eradicated,” Dr Dramane Kaba, entomologist and director of the Pierre Richet Institute at Bouake in central Ivory Coast said.

The institute specialises in insect-transmitted diseases including malaria, dengue, Zika and chikungunya.

Despite the progress, “pockets of resistance” remained, Kaba said.

They include the Democratic Rep of Congo — home to 80% of cases — and Guinea, where health programmes have been ravaged by Ebola.