Eradicating Fatal Sleeping Sickness: Researchers Target Tsetse Flies Across Equatorial Africa

Researchers from Brigham Young University in London are working to eradicate fatal sleeping sickness that plaques parts of equatorial Africa. According to findings published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), researchers found that eliminating high concentrations of tsetse flies could help lower the number of those affected.

Lead study author Steven L. Peck, a BYU professor of biology at the university, used advanced computer models to better determine how to eliminate the highest number of tsetse flies possible. Early study trials have even resulted in 99.6 percent of the flies being knocked out in treated areas. Researchers are currently targeting an area in Senegal that's planned to be cleared of the flies by the end of 2016.

As it stands, the tsetse fly is the main vector for Human African trypanosomiasis, otherwise known as the sleeping sickness, and spread when humans or animals are bitten by the insect, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The disease works its way through the central nervous system and is fatal if left untreated. Unfortunately, some victims may reach the terminal stage before any symptoms start to show.

"It's an issue that doesn't get a lot of attention, but it should," Peck added, in a news release. According to the WHO, trypanosomiasis is a major neglected disease, indicating that it doesn't get the same research funding or attention as other major diseases (such as malaria).

Eradication crews are working to further stop the issue by producing lab-reared tsetse flies that have been treated with radiation to render them sterile and then releasing them into the wild. Follow-up research has shown  that this has resulted in a steep decline among the number of flies.

For the future, researchers said they are hoping to instigate similar eradication methods to prevent further spread of the sickness across the area.