Context

• Recently, Togo has become the 1st country in Africa to eliminate human African Trypanosomiasis or sleeping sickness.

About Human African Trypanosomiasis or Sleeping Sickness

• It is a vector-borne parasitic disease.

• It is caused by infection with protozoan parasites belonging to the genus Trypanosoma.

• It is transmitted to humans by tsetse fly (Glossina genus) bites which have acquired their infection from human beings or from animals harbouring human pathogenic parasites.

• According to the WHO, sleeping sickness is currently found in 36 sub-Saharan African countries.

• Treatment involves drugs to kill the parasites.

Back to Basics

About Togo

• It is a western African country.
• Togo is surrounded by Gulf of Guniea in the south, Ghana in the west, Benin in the east and Burkin Faso in the north.