Waking up to better ways of tackling sleeping sickness. Validated RNRRS Output.

Abstract

This is one of 280 summaries describing key outputs from the projects run by DFID's 10-year Renewable Natural Resources Research Strategy (RNRRS) programmes.

New, cost-effective ways of controlling sleeping sickness in people and nagana in cattle are being applied in Uganda. These techniques involve treating infected cattle with drugs that kill blood-borne trypanosomes (which cause these diseases), and applying insecticides to the specific parts of the cattle that tsetse fly bite to feed (like the legs and belly). Conventional methods of tackling sleeping sickness concentrate on detecting and treating human cases and killing the tsetse flies that spread the disease. But, this doesn't address the fact that cattle are the major reservoir of the disease. In fact, almost 50% of the cattle living in some areas carry the disease. The new methods that have been developed offer a way of combating the problem at source.

The CD has the following information for this output: Description, Validation, Current Situation, Current Promotion, Impacts on Poverty, Environmental Impact. Attached PDF (16 pp.) taken from the CD.

Citation

AHP02, New technologies, new processes, new policies: tried-and-tested and ready-to-use results from DFID-funded research, Research Into Use Programme, Aylesford, Kent, UK, ISBN 978-0-9552595-6-2, p 58.

Published 1 January 2007