Trypanosomiasis control

In July 2000, Heads of State of the 36th Session of the Organisation for African Unity signed a potentially important declaration on African trypanosomiasis, urging member states "to act collectively to rise to the challenge of eliminating the problem through concerted efforts in mobilising the necessary human, financial and material resources required to render Africa tsetse-free within the shortest time possible". To many, such an ambitious dream is received with some scepticism, recalling the doubts that surrounded a similar declaration signed in Brasilia in 1991, which paved the way for the Southern Cone Initiative against American trypanosomiasis (Chagas disease). True, the two diseases are quite different. But the operational challenges are quite similar, and there are sufficient biological parallels to suggest that the Latin American experience in controlling Chagas disease may provide a useful model for the control of African trypanosomiasis.