Download or read book Guidelines for the treatment of human African trypanosomiasis written by World Health Organization and published by World Health Organization. This book was released on 2024-06-28 with total page 50 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: WHO has issued new guidelines for the treatment of human African trypanosomiasis (HAT), also known as sleeping sickness, a fatal disease provoked by a parasitic infection, transmitted by the bite of infected tsetse flies in sub-Saharan Africa. The recent development of a new molecule (fexinidazole) presents an opportunity to improve the therapeutic options. WHO has invested in following these developments, in commissioning independent evidence reviews, and in convening experts to develop new guidelines that reconfigure the therapeutic choices by giving new roles to this new molecule and the previously existing ones, in order to offer the best treatment possible for each type of patient. These guidelines are for the treatment of both disease forms: gambiense HAT, the slowly progressing form, caused by infection with Trypanosoma brucei gambiense, in western and central Africa; and rhodesiense HAT, the more rapidly progressive form, caused by T. b. rhodesiense, in eastern and southern Africa. They supersede the WHO interim guidelines for the treatment of gambiense human African trypanosomiasis, issued in 2019.