Criteria and procedures for the verification of elimination of transmission of "T. b. gambiense" to the human population in a given country

Overview

The development of this document was elaborated in discussion within the human African trypanosomiasis elimination Technical Advisory Group (HAT-e-TAG), led by the WHO Department of Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases (WHO/NTD), in collaboration with the WHO Regional Office for Africa.

Having established the goal of eliminating transmission of gambiense human African trypanosomiasis (g-HAT) to humans, the HAT-e-TAG considered which elements should be developed to assess this goal.

The HAT-e-TAG includes independent experts from academia and representatives of national control programmes of endemic countries, nominated by World Health Organization . The standard World Health Organization procedures for Declaration of Interest are followed.

At its various meetings (16–17 December 2020; 9–10 February 2022) and remote consultations, the HAT-e-TAG defined the framework for the elimination of transmission of g-HAT, defining key concepts, indicators and procedures, and produced a template to help countries to claim the verification of elimination of transmission of g-HAT.