Sustaining Efforts of Controlling Zoonotic Sleeping Sickness in Uganda Using Trypanocidal Treatment and Spray of...

In 2005, the zoonotic acute sleeping sickness was spreading rapidly from the endemic areas of southeastern Uganda with potential for merger into areas affected by the chronic form of the disease in northwest Uganda. Movement of cattle reservoirs due to restocking was blamed for the rapid spread. To stop the spread of the zoonotic sleeping sickness, cattle in the disease endemic areas had to be treated with trypanocidal drugs and sprayed with deltamethrin to promote the live bait technology that helps suppress the tsetse vector. The initiative that started in five high-risk districts in 2006 with a mix of using several undergraduate veterinary students has now been integrated in the local government veterinary service delivery in 23 high-risk districts. By 2016, the annual spray of cattle with deltamethrin and treatment with diminazene aceturate had reached one million with 1,065,444 cattle sprayed in the reporting year July 1, 2016 to June 30, 2017. This is believed to have contributed significantly to the reduction in the number of Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense sleeping sickness cases (from 473 recorded in 2005 to 14 in 2016, and only about 10 reported to the Coordinating Office for Control of Trypanosomiasis in Uganda [COCTU] in 2017). The initiative that started as the Stamp Out Sleeping Sickness Consortium with a public good approach, implemented in a public-private partnership with the faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Makerere University, has today been integrated in both private and public sectors to fast-track the elimination of T. b. rhodesiense sleeping sickness with active financial contribution from the affected communities in sustaining the delivery of live bait technology.