Résumé
Human African trypanosomiasis (HAT) has become a rare disease and with fewer than 1500 cases detected in 2017. HAT prevalence has never been as low. This drop in prevalence can largely be attributed to the deployment of large scale control measures, and for gambiense‐HAT control in particular, mass screening using innovative immunodiagnostic tests. Stage determination is necessary to decide on the appropriate treatment which is different for first stage and second stage disease and different for gambiense‐HAT and rhodesiense‐HAT. It is important to note that most immunodiagnostic tests for HAT were prepared using an undefined mixture of antigens and therefore were prone to non‐specific reactions resulting in false positive results. The card agglutination test for trypanosomiasis, the earliest rapid test developed for HAT, has contributed to the unprecedented success of HAT control obtained over the last two decades.