[Human African trypanosomiasis: description of two pediatric cases in Yaoundé, Cameroon]

During the first decades of the 20th century, about 45% of deaths in Cameroon were believed to be due to human African trypanosomiasis. Thanks to the screening and treatment campaigns implemented between 1926-1932, a considerable regression of the disease was achieved and, by the 1950s, only a few well-known and delimited foci remained. Today, human African trypanosomiasis is an extremely rare diagnosis, especially in children. The purpose of this report is to describe two cases of neuromeningeal human African trypanosomiasis that were discovered coincidentally in two children, ages 12 and 2 years. The children were from two villages in the center of Cameroon that is not considered as a known endemic focus. These two cases raise difficult questions about the possibility of latent endemic foci of human African trypanosomiasis and of animal-to-human transmission. The outcome was favorable in the first case and fatal in the second.