# La Science s'aMuse: Towards the end of sleeping sickness?

Welcome to the program co-produced by the University of Montpellier and Divergence-FM, which takes you on a cruise through the laboratories of the Muse archipelago. This week we're off to Côte d'Ivoire, where the government and WHO have just officially validated the elimination of human African trypanosomiasis, or sleeping sickness, as a public health problem. We talk to Vincent Jamonneau, a parasitologist atIRD in the INTERTRYP team, and co-author of an article published last February in Plos Neglected Tropical Diseases.

Today we're heading for Côte d'Ivoire, where we've got some great news: the WHO has just officially validated the elimination of human African trypanosomiasis as a public health problem. I can hear you now, "great news, great news all right! But what is human African trypanosomiasis?" You don't know it, but you know it, and you know it well.... If I tell you about sleeping sickness and its equally famous vector, the tsetse fly, things are a lot clearer, aren't they?

TrypaNo! program

This endemic disease of sub-Saharan Africa is caused by a parasite identified at the very beginning of the 20th century: the Bruce trypanosome, named after its discoverer, Sir David Bruce. This parasite was responsible for three major epidemic events in the 20th century, causing the death of several million people. Although trypanosomiasis has become more discreet in recent decades, it has not disappeared and continues to infect several hundred people every year in Africa.

In Africa, but more so in Côte d'Ivoire, where the national program to eliminate the disease has reduced the number of contaminations to just 9 since 2015. A spectacular result achieved thanks to the support of research, and in particular the historic partnership between thePierre Richet Institute in Bouaké, Côte d'Ivoire, and the Intertryp team of IRD and CIRAD researchers and their TrypaNO program! We talk to Vincent Jamonneau, our guest of the day. He is a parasitologist at IRD, member of the Intertryp team and co-author ofa publication published last February in Plos Neglected Tropical Diseases.

La science s'aMuse, you've got the map, let's get on board!

Production : Université de Montpellier- Divergence FM
Animation: Lucie Lecherbonnier
Interviews: Aline Périault/ Lucie Lecherbonnier
Production: Adeline Flo'ch

Listen to the "A LUM LA SCIENCE" program on Divergence FM 93.9