Report of the second WHO stakeholders meeting on rhodesiense human African trypanosomiasis

Overview

The first WHO stakeholders meeting on r-HAT elimination (Geneva, 20–22 October 2014) was an important boost to the multisectoral coordination mechanism between WHO and partners to eliminate r-HAT as a public health problem. Contributing partners included members of academia, public–private partnerships, nongovernmental organizations, international organizations, donors and national sleeping sickness control programmes (NSSCPs). This second stakeholders meeting aimed to review the progress made in the past 2 years in terms of diagnostic and treatment capacities and to examine the current epidemiological situation in each country. The discussions focused on key elements of future activities, such as the importance of sustained surveillance, multisectoral coordination and partnerships, innovative ways to expand the use of tools and improving capacity-building.

The objectives of the meeting were:

• to describe the current epidemiological situation of r-HAT, health system capacities and control activities in each endemic country;
• to assess the current situation of tools to control r-HAT;
• to identify main gaps and challenges to achieving the elimination of r-HAT as a public health problem and possible solutions, both continentally and at country level; and
• to promote the development of concrete plans for (i) capacity-building at country level to ensure access to diagnosis and treatment for r-HAT, and (ii) an integrated surveillance system for control and elimination.