Responsible officers in health ministries of endemic countries, research groups developing new tools, implementing partners and public and private donors met on 7-9 June at WHO headquarters in Geneva for the Fifth WHO stakeholders meeting on human African trypanosomiasis elimination. The aim of the event was to reinforce the partnership and commitment for elimination of human African trypanosomiasis (HAT) and to structure the mechanisms of collaboration within the WHO network for HAT elimination.

During the meeting, WHO announced that a total 837 cases of human African trypanosomiasis were reported in 2022 by endemic countries, thus keeping this figure below 1,000 cases for the fifth consecutive year. Out of them, 799 correspond to the gambiense form of the disease and 38 to the rhodesiense form.

Human African trypanosomiasis, also called sleeping sickness, is a parasitic disease still prevalent in several countries in western, central, and southern Africa. Its causal agent, the protozoan Trypanosoma brucei, is transmitted to humans by bites of tsetse flies which have acquired the parasites from infected humans or animals.

In the WHO road map for neglected tropical diseases 2021-2030, the gambiense form is targeted for elimination of transmission, and the rhodesiense form for elimination as a public health problem.

During the meeting, partners discussed the achievements attained so far and the challenges towards the above-mentioned goals. Notably, the group reviewed the technical aspects related to the development and roll-out of new diagnostics, therapeutics and vector control tools, which could accelerate progress towards zero cases.

So far, six countries have been validated by WHO for achieving elimination of gambiense HAT as a public health problem (as a key milestone towards the target of elimination of transmission): these are Côte d'Ivoire (2020), Togo (2020), Benin (2021), Equatorial Guinea (2022), Uganda (2022) and Ghana (2023); and one country, Rwanda, was validated in 2022 for elimination of rhodesiense HAT as a public health problem.