And now, a new medicine against sleeping sickness

Scientists working on neglected tropical diseases have welcomed the approval of a new drug for the treatment of African human trypanosomiasis, commonly known as sleeping sickness.

The new drug – fexinidazole – was approved by the European Medicines Agency on 16 November.

This will be the first fully oral treatment to be used against sleeping sickness.

Sleeping sickness is usually fatal without treatment. Transmitted by the bite of a tsetse fly, it causes neuropsychiatric symptoms such as aggression, psychosis and disabling sleep disturbance, hence the name of sleeping sickness.

"Unlike the current treatment of the disease, which involves the administration of painful injections and long periods of hospitalization to patients, the new drug will only be taken for 10 days, regardless of the stage of the disease, "reads in the report of the Drugs for Neglected Diseases (DNDi) initiative, the nonprofit organization that spearheaded drug development.

DNDi is currently working with various pharmaceutical and research organizations to develop new, more effective treatments for various neglected tropical diseases such as mycetoma and visceral leishmaniasis, also known as Kala-azar.

"While current treatments are safe and effective, they require the hospitalization of a patient and constitute a huge logistical burden for the health system.

Fexinidazole is a simple pill, which represents a giant step in the fight against this disease, "said Dr. Victor Kande, the principal investigator of the drug trial and counselor on neglected tropical diseases to the Ministry of Health of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

With the old treatment, patients with the parasite of sleeping sickness in their blood also had to undergo a lumbar puncture to determine if the parasite had reached their brain – often complex treatment to administer, especially in the regions of the continent limited resources.