E. Reiner, personal communication). As the probable places of infection and contact with tsetse flies are obtained from patients’ interviews, we have to accept a degree of uncertainty given that, in some instances, several Selleck XL184 places of infection were possible. In this light, interviews can be considered to be providing an orientation rather than hard evidence. However, in the case of Rhodesiense HAT, patients usually remember quite clearly where they were attacked and bitten by tsetse flies. Limitations notwithstanding, available data from HAT surveillance in non-DECs provides valuable information on hot-spots of transmission that complements data collected in DECs, thereby
helping to plan control and surveillance in countries with weak surveillance systems. For example, a cluster of cases diagnosed in 2001 in travelers to Tanzanian NPs, especially SB203580 datasheet the Serengeti, was suggestive of a change in the local epidemiology.6 In Uganda, autochthonous Rhodesiense cases are reported from south-eastern
districts only, while surveillance in non-DECs also provided information on infections contracted in the south-western part of the country, in two travelers visiting the Queen Elizabeth NP. Similarly, in Zimbabwe, only one case was detected by national health facilities during the study period, but five exported cases of travelers having visited Mana Pools NP were recorded. In addition, two Zimbabwean nationals were detected out of the country. Therefore, we have not included in our series two cases reported by Rocha et al.25 concerning a hypothetical sexually and congenitally transmitted HAT that occurred in the United States. Awareness of the fact that HAT is still a risk for travelers and migrants is an essential prerequisite to much ensure correct and early diagnosis, to avoid unnecessary distress to patients, and to reduce the risk of lethality. An accurate
geographical anamnesis is crucial, as so is the search for key signs such as enlarged para-cervical and supra-clavicle glands for T b gambiense and chancre for T b rhodesiense infections. Indeed more than three quarters of Rhodesiense HAT cases presented chancre at diagnosis. HAT surveillance in non-DECs may also raise questions related to difficulties in detecting exported HAT in recipient countries. For example, countries like France, Portugal, Spain, and Germany are predictably diagnosing cases in expatriates or migrants coming from former colonial territories in Gambiense areas. The fact that drugs to treat HAT are not available on the market, except pentamidine, largely improved reporting of HAT cases diagnosed in non-DECs. Only 40% of the cases diagnosed in the period 2000 to 2010 were published in scientific papers, while 35% were only reported to WHO at the moment of drug request and 25% were reported to WHO and to epidemiological networks such as the Communicable Diseases Communiqué of the National Health Laboratory Services, South Africa (http://www.nicd.ac.za), ProMed (http://www.