Résumé
The number of people getting sleeping sickness in central and western Africa has been going down in recent years. Since the trypanosome species causing the disease in these countries has a human reservoir, the World Health Organization hopes, by 2030, to eliminate its transmission. Simple screening tests exist but diagnostic confirmation is challenging. This hampers treatment coverage but was always considered necessary in view of complexity and toxicity of the older treatment regimens. Now a new oral medication becomes available. It has minimal side effects, and only requires one dose to cure sleeping sickness. This could allow introducing presumptive treatment, based on a positive screening test only. In the STROGHAT study, researchers will evaluate if giving this new drug to everyone who tests positive to a serological screening test for sleeping sickness, without need for further confirmation, could help getting rid of the disease. The study will take place in a region in the north of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Researchers will also check for any side effects of the new drug. Additionally, they will evaluate new diagnostic tests that would enable confirmation of the disease in a remote laboratory at a later timepoint, and look at the cost of this approach. If the study is successful, this innovative approach could be applied to eliminate sleeping sickness transmission in other affected regions and countries.