Côte d'Ivoire
An integrated approach to sustaining elimination in Côte d’Ivoire
Global efforts to control gHAT have led to a drastic reduction in disease prevalence with the elimination of transmission (EoT) now targeted for 2030 by the WHO. For Côte d’Ivoire, however, controlling the disease was particularly challenging as epidemic episodes were still occurring in the early 2000s. Transition to very low prevalence in Côte d’Ivoire, therefore, required the adaptation and evolution of both medical and vector control strategies which are described in this paper. In parallel, mathematical modelling has been used to retrospectively analyse case reporting results, indicating with high probability that local EoT has already been achieved in the four health districts analysed. With only nine gHAT cases detected in two health districts between 2015 and 2019, and less than one case per 10,000 people per year in all health districts at the national level over this five-year period, Côte d’Ivoire received validation by WHO of achievement of the elimination of the disease as a public health problem in 2020. Together, these results, combined with the modelling, offer encouragement that the verification of EoT, targeted for 2025 in Côte d’Ivoire, can be achieved provided research activities continue to adapt to the epidemiological transition to zero incidence.
Article: Kaba D, Koffi M, Kouakou L, N’Gouan EK, Djohan V, Courtin F, N’Djetchi MK, Coulibaly B, Adingra GP, Berté D, Dieudonné Ta BT, Koné M, Sutherland SA, Crump RE, Huang C, Madan J, Bessell PR, Barreaux A, Solano P, Crowley EH , Rock KS, Jamonneau V (2023). Towards the sustainable elimination of human African trypanosomiasis in Côte d’Ivoire using an integrated approachLink opens in a new window PLoS Neglected Tropical Disease