In a landmark achievement for global health, the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared Guinea free of gambiense human African trypanosomiasis (HAT), commonly known as sleeping sickness, as a public health problem.
This victory makes sleeping sickness the first neglected tropical disease (NTD) eliminated in Guinea, a significant milestone on World NTD Day on January 30th.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus congratulated Guinea in a social media post on Thursday.
"Today’s announcement is both a testament to the global progress against neglected tropical diseases and a beacon of hope for nations still battling human African trypanosomiasis,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.
Sleeping sickness, a parasitic disease transmitted by infected tsetse flies, causes symptoms ranging from fever and headaches to, in advanced stages, neurological problems like confusion and sleep disturbances.
“The elimination of sleeping sickness is the result of many years of effort by the Guinean government, its partners and communities in the overall context of the national policy to combat all neglected tropical diseases,” said Oumar Diouhé BAH, Guinea's Minister of Health and Public Hygiene.
WHO says Guinea's success in eliminating this potentially fatal disease is a result of sustained investment, strategic partnerships, and community engagement.
Decades-long fight
The resurgence of sleeping sickness in Guinea’s coastal regions during the 1990s, driven by increased human activity in mangroves, prompted the Ministry of Health and Public Hygiene to establish the National Programme for the Control of HAT in 2002.
WHO says Guinea was also supported by the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD) and later, partners like the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative and the Institut Pasteur de Guinée, which helped launch mass medical screenings for early diagnosis and treatment.
"Vector control interventions, introduced in 2012, aimed to break the transmission cycle by targeting tsetse flies. The widespread deployment of insecticide-impregnated mini-screens proved highly effective in reducing fly populations," WHO says.
Overcoming challenges
Guinea's journey to elimination was not without obstacles. The Ebola outbreak from 2013-2015 severely disrupted health services, leading to a resurgence in sleeping sickness cases. The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 presented further challenges.
WHO praised Guinea for quickly "adapting and implementing door-to-door HAT screening" to maintain momentum.
“The elimination of human African trypanosomiasis by Guinea is a significant public health achievement. Vulnerable families and communities can now live free of the threat posed by this potentially fatal disease,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa.
With Guinea, seven other countries have been validated by WHO for eliminating the gambiense form of human African trypanosomiasis: Togo (2020), Benin (2021), Côte d’Ivoire (2021), Uganda (2022), Equatorial Guinea (2022), Ghana (2023) and Chad (2024).
➤Click here to follow our WhatsApp channel for more stories.
