Kampala — THE World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Ministry of Health have commissioned a new and more effective drug for the treatment of advanced sleeping sickness.

Dr. Jose Ramon Franco, a medical officer with the Neglected Tropical Diseases department at the WHO headquarters in Geneva, said the treatment, which combines eflornithine and nifurtimox drugs, will be used after five years of study.

He said clinical trials were conducted between 2003 and 2009 at Omugo health centre in Maracha/Terego district in Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Congo Brazzaville.

"Our findings have shown that this treatment is effective and much easier to apply, unlike the old one that needed a lot of care, staff and logistics," Ramon said.

He was speaking at the closure of a one-week training for regional health personnel at Golden Courts in Arua town on Saturday.

The training was organised by the Vector Control Department of the health ministry in collaboration with WHO.

Participants were drawn from Juba, Yei and Yambio in Southern Sudan and the West Nile region in Uganda, where the gambiense form of sleeping sickness is endemic.

Dr. Charles Wamboga, an official from the National Sleeping Sickness Control Programme, said research conducted on the treatment began after the former drugs, eflornithine and melarsoprol, registered failure rates of up to 17% and 30% respectively.

"Eflornithine was used in Omugo and Yumbe hospitals, while melarsopro was used in Adjumani and Moyo hospitals. The failures increased, which forced us to call in WHO," he revealed.

Wamboga said Uganda and Southern Sudan were the first African countries to adopt the combination treatment.

He revealed that kits for the treatment supplied by WHO had been distributed in the affected areas by the Ministry of Health.

The drugs are available in Adjumani, Moyo and Omugo hospitals, which are the main treatment centres for the disease in West Nile.

Wamboga emphasised that treatment is given freely, courtesy of the donations from Sanofi-Aventis and Bayer pharmaceutical companies that produce the medicines.