The cost of sleeping sickness vector control in Yasa Bonga, a health district in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Gambiense human African trypanosomiasis (gHAT), a neglected tropical disease caused by a parasite transmitted by tsetse flies, once inflicted over 30,000 annual cases and resulted in an estimated half a million deaths in the late twentieth century. An international gHAT control program has reduced cases to under 1,000 annually, encouraging the World Health Organization to target the elimination of gHAT transmission by 2030. This requires adopting innovative disease control approaches in foci where transmission persists.

Health and economic impacts of Lassa vaccination campaigns in West Africa.

Lassa fever is a zoonotic disease identified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as having pandemic potential. This study estimates the health-economic burden of Lassa fever throughout West Africa and projects impacts of a series of vaccination campaigns. We also model the emergence of "Lassa-X" - a hypothetical pandemic Lassa virus variant - and project impacts of achieving 100 Days Mission vaccination targets.

Specificity of serological screening tests and reference laboratory tests to diagnose gambiense human African trypanosomiasis: a prospective clinical performance study.

Background: Serological screening tests play a crucial role to diagnose gambiense human African trypanosomiasis (gHAT). Presently, they preselect individuals for microscopic confirmation, but in future "screen and treat" strategies they will identify individuals for treatment. Variability in reported specificities, the development of new rapid diagnostic tests (RDT) and the hypothesis that malaria infection may decrease RDT specificity led us to evaluate the specificity of 5 gHAT screening tests.

Assessing the importance of demographic risk factors across two waves of SARS-CoV-2 using fine-scale case data.

For the long term control of an infectious disease such as COVID-19, it is crucial to identify the most likely individuals to become infected and the role that differences in demographic characteristics play in the observed patterns of infection. As high-volume surveillance winds down, testing data from earlier periods are invaluable for studying risk factors for infection in detail. Observed changes in time during these periods may then inform how stable the pattern will be in the long term.