The disease prevalence found by the DPD team is among the highest ever documented, and control activities are urgently needed to reduce deaths. Residents of Baikpa village who were screened for West African trypanosomiasis. If untreated, the disease is fatal.
Death usually occurs within a few months of central nervous system involvement.
In May 1997, Drs. Almost 1,400 persons in 16 villages were serologically screened and examined for the presence of the parasite. The disease was found in every village surveyed. African trypanosomiasis is also reemerging in neighboring countries such as the Central African Republic. In several countries in which African trypanosomiasis is endemic, political turmoil and economic crisis have eroded the public health infrastructure necessary to keep the disease under control.