Report of the WHO stakeholders update webinar on human African trypanosomiasis, Geneva, Switzerland, 5 June 2025

Overview

WHO convened stakeholders involved in the elimination of human African trypanosomiasis (HAT) for an update webinar covering the past two years. Previous stakeholder meetings had been held in person; however, this year the webinar format was adopted due to budgetary constraints.

A total of at least 140 participants attended, including representatives of national sleeping sickness control programmes (NSSCPs), research groups developing new tools, international and nongovernmental organizations involved in disease control, and donors.

As countries presented their epidemiological and programmatic situations, and WHO summarized the global status of HAT, the central message was one of satisfaction with the remarkable progress towards elimination. A historically low number of cases was reported, despite maintaining high levels of active and passive screening in all accessible at-risk areas. In addition, 10 countries have been officially validated for the elimination of HAT as a public health problem.

Time was also devoted to reviewing progress and challenges in the areas of diagnostics, therapeutics and vector control interventions.

These discussions and findings are summarized in this report.