Search Here

A large number of people in Sub-Saharan countries in Africa suffer from trypanosoniasis, a sleeping sickness which eats in to the brain of people. But the villagers,unaware of the disease, blame it on witchcraft.

"I've been suffering for more than two months now. I have headaches, fever, and I just feel very tired," said Lea Sadene, from Chad village according to AFP.

The Human African trypanosomiasis, commonly known as sleeping sickness, is transmitted by tsetse flies found in 36 sub-Saharan African countries.

The disease is serious and if not treated in between four months and one year, "The parasite penetrates into the brain, causing serious neurological symptoms, until death," said Doctor Benedict Blaynay, head of the neglected tropical diseases at French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi, says the report.

Blaynay further says that symptoms could include a changed personality and mental deterioration which could also lead to long hours of sleeping or even coma.

According to health officials in Chad, around 3,300 people were infected between 2001 and 2011 in several areas of the landlocked central African nation, one of the poorest in the world.

"With more than 100 cases per year Chad is considered an endemic country," said Doctor Peka Mallaye, in-charge of the national programme to fight against sleeping sickness.

Recently, when tests for the disease were conducted by Sanofi in Kobitoi (southern Chad village), 14 cases of sleeping sickness were found out of the 120 examined.

"This village is located next to a forest where the tsetse flies live. During the rainy season, people pass through the forest to go fishing or hunting," Mallaye said.

The problem with fighting the disease has less to do with its diagnosis and drugs and is more about the fact that the local people have associated the symptoms of the disease with witchcraft and superstition.

"Before we didn't know that it was the disease that was killing people. People died like flies, they blamed witches," said Alngar Legode, a village woman.

Sociologist Serferbe Charlot said that in traditional societies, people think that a person suspected of witchcraft "is eating away at a person's soul."

In the later stages of the disease a person goes through various neurological problems, which can even turn him/her violent, leading people to believe that the person is possessed, said Charlot.

This is why it is important for health officials to make villagers understand the true nature of the disease and make them understand this is not witchcraft. There is a need to spread awareness about this disease, he adds, according to the report.

World health organization has constantly worked and according to recent WHO statistics, the number of cases have dropped considerably in the last few years. While there were below 10,000 cases in 2009 (which was first time in 50 years), there were 7,139 cases in 2010.

Currently, WHO estimation says there are 30,000 cases of the disease, Democratic Republic of Congo being the most affected country.

An early detection of the disease is one of the key factors; before it reaches the neurological stage. Once the disease reaches the neurological stage, it involves a more complicated and risky treatment.

The main challenge according to chief executive of Sanofi, Christopher Viehbacher is to constantly keep up the "expertise in diagnosis and treatment in the medical centres" to assure the detection of the disease.

"If we keep doing the right things better, and on a larger scale, some of these diseases could be eliminated by 2015, and others by 2020," WHO Director General Margaret Chan has said.