T.b. rhodesiense is endemic in 13 countries.† Since 2011, reported rhodesiense HAT cases have been steadily declining, with only 24 cases reported in 2023...
Between this patient’s presentation in August 2024 and January 2025 three additional cases of rhodesiense HAT were reported to WHO in persons from nonendemic countries who were bitten by a tsetse fly while traveling in the Zambezi Valley.
The Zambezi Valley spans northern Zimbabwe and southern Zambia, where epidemiologic conditions are similar, and the parasite is endemic. These four cases are the first Zambezi Valley–associated cases reported since 2019, although Zambia has experienced human cases in other areas during this period....
In the 1980s and 1990s, great strides were taken towards the elimination of tsetse and animal African trypanosomiasis (AAT) in Zimbabwe. However, advances in recent years have been limited. Previously freed areas have been at risk of reinvasion, and the disease in tsetse-infested areas remains a constraint to food security. article
The patterns of tsetse and AAT distributions in Zimbabwe are shaped by a combination of bioclimatic factors, historical events such as the rinderpest epizootic at the turn of the twentieth century
the rinderpest killed a lot of the wild animals so the flies had nothing to bite; the white settlers kept the wild population down by hunting, and when I lived in Zimbabwe, there was a fenced off zone to keep animals and flies from migrating south from the Zambesi area, and extensive spraying to control flies was done. PDF.
and extensive and sustained tsetse control that is aimed at progressively eliminating tsetse and trypanosomiasis from the entire country.
The comprehensive dataset assembled in the atlas will improve the spatial targeting of surveillance and control activities. It will also represent a valuable tool for research, by enabling large-scale geo-spatial analyses....
The tsetse-infested area in Zimbabwe is currently estimated at 30,000 km2, which corresponds to 17% of the 180,000 km2 ecologically suitable area originally infested by tsetse [10]. In particular, tsetse distribution in Zimbabwe has always been restricted to the north, northwest, northeast and southeast of the country with the central highveld being ecologically unsuitable for the fly.
fake cows that smell like cows and attract the flies are one means of control....2001 article BMJ...
the cows were introduced into Zimbabwe in the mid-1980s, when thousands of cattle were infected with nagana, a disease equivalent to sleeping sickness in cattle. Cases of nagana in the country plummeted to almost zero and have remained at this low level for the past five years. A total of 60000 cows are now in use in Zimbabwe...
TED talk about genetically altering cattle to stop the disease
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