Prevalence of human African trypanosomiasis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

• Published in: PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases
• Main Authors: Dieudonne Mumba, Elaine Bohorquez, Jane Messina, Victor Kande, Steven M Taylor, Antoinette K Tshefu, Jeremie Muwonga, Melchior M Kashamuka, Michael Emch, Richard Tidwell, Philippe Büscher, Steven R Meshnick
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2011
• Subjects: Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Public aspects of medicine; RA1-1270; Arctic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0001246; https://doaj.org/article/f44a64ce085447469a4bc2be0f8c565d

Human African Trypanosomiasis (HAT) is a major public health problem in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Active and passive surveillance for HAT is conducted but may underestimate the true prevalence of the disease. We used ELISA to screen 7,769 leftover dried blood spots from a nationally representative population-based survey, the 2007 Demographic and Health Survey. 26 samples were positive by ELISA. Three of these were also positive by trypanolysis and/or PCR. From these data, we estimate that there were 18,592 people with HAT (95% confidence interval, 4,883-32,302) in the DRC in 2007, slightly more than twice as many as were reported.