PART OF ENVIRONMENTAL-FACTORS IN THE RENE WED OUTBREAK OF HUMAN AFRICAN TRYPANOSOMIASIS

The authors highlight the major target for the prevention of human afr ican trypanosomiasis (HAT) i.e. decrease of parasites reservoir. For t his purpose, they state that it is necessary to detect HAT patients, t o treat them, and to break down the contact between human and vectors. Then, they review the environmental factors that could be involved in the HAT outbreak. A political direction would strengthen the HAT prev ention by the increase of resources attributable to the disease. But, choice of priorities is based on technical criteria which are not in f avour of HAT. Many difficult situations, occurring at the borders of c oncerned states, are restricting factors for a global and co-ordinated prevention. Moreover, internal political disturbances and local confl icts lead to a mismanagement of health care departments. These conflic ts lead also to a migratory flow of populations; thereafter, the indiv iduals have no access to medical structure. Beside the economical and political factors, some others have a great importance: human behavior , estimation of risk by the authorities, psychological perception of t he disease by the population. The part of these different factors must be perfectly identified to avoid any disturbance in the actions of HA T prevention. The least failure leads to a quick increase of parasites transmission, and the NAT control has to start all over again.