TY - JOUR KW - Zoonoses KW - Trypanosomiasis, African KW - Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense KW - Trypanosoma brucei gambiense KW - Tropical Medicine KW - Tropical Climate KW - Rural Population KW - Parasitic Diseases KW - Malaria KW - Humans KW - Disabled Persons KW - Cost of Illness KW - Animals KW - Africa South of the Sahara KW - Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome AU - Fèvre EM AU - Wissmann BV AU - Welburn S AU - Lutumba P AB -

Human African trypanosomiasis (HAT, or sleeping sickness) is a protozoan parasitic infection caused by Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense or Trypanosoma brucei gambiense. These are neglected tropical diseases, and T.b. rhodesiense HAT is a zoonosis. We review current knowledge on the burden of HAT in sub-Saharan Africa, with an emphasis on the disability-adjusted life year (DALY), data sources, and methodological issues relating to the use of this metric for assessing the burden of this disease. We highlight areas where data are lacking to properly quantify the impact of these diseases, mainly relating to quantifying under-reporting and disability associated with infection, and challenge the HAT research community to tackle the neglect in data gathering to enable better evidence-based assessments of burden using DALYs or other appropriate measures.

BT - PLoS neglected tropical diseases C1 -

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19104653?dopt=Abstract

DO - 10.1371/journal.pntd.0000333 IS - 12 J2 - PLoS Negl Trop Dis LA - eng N2 -

Human African trypanosomiasis (HAT, or sleeping sickness) is a protozoan parasitic infection caused by Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense or Trypanosoma brucei gambiense. These are neglected tropical diseases, and T.b. rhodesiense HAT is a zoonosis. We review current knowledge on the burden of HAT in sub-Saharan Africa, with an emphasis on the disability-adjusted life year (DALY), data sources, and methodological issues relating to the use of this metric for assessing the burden of this disease. We highlight areas where data are lacking to properly quantify the impact of these diseases, mainly relating to quantifying under-reporting and disability associated with infection, and challenge the HAT research community to tackle the neglect in data gathering to enable better evidence-based assessments of burden using DALYs or other appropriate measures.

PY - 2008 EP - e333 T2 - PLoS neglected tropical diseases TI - The burden of human African trypanosomiasis. UR - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2602597/pdf/pntd.0000333.pdf VL - 2 SN - 1935-2735 ER -