WHO confirms that Kenya has been able to eliminate sleeping sickness, which is one of the greatest healthcare achievements and it enhances addressing the neglected tropical diseases.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recently confirmed Kenya as being a country without the Human African Trypanosomiasis (HAT), or sleeping sickness, as a public health challenge thus an important healthcare feat. It is the tenth nation to have reached this milestone and the second of the neglected tropical diseases to have been eliminated, after Guinea worm disease was eliminated in 2018.

HAT is a serious healthcare threat that is brought on by a parasite known as Trypanosoma brucei and carried by tsetse flies and is prevalent in rural populations that depend on agricultural activities, fishing, or husbandry. Kenya fought with the rhodesiense strain of HAT that spreads quickly and causes death in a few weeks without medical attention.

This achievement follows more than ten years of reporting no native cases, thanks to the implementation of effective healthcare surveillance, enhanced diagnostics, and extensive control measures against tsetse flies. The goal of prevention of resurgence has seen the Ministry of Health and its partners such as WHO and FIND, devoted to post-validation monitoring.

The success of Kenya not only protects the health of the public population, but it also builds capabilities within the country with regard to its healthcare system as well as the country being a leader in combating neglected tropical diseases in Africa.