(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-02-01 07:44

LUANDA - The sleeping sickness is a worrying problem in Angola and the world as well, a top health official said here on Thursday, calling for more efforts to fight against it.

Josenando Theophile, director general of the Trypanosomiasis Fight and Control Institute (ICCT), said the problem has affects the country and the continent in the sectors of health and economy at a meeting of appraisal of the activity in the fight against African Human Trypanosomiasis and the tsetse fly in Angola.

According to the official, human beings once affected by the disease will become weak and lose work ability gradually whereas no meat or milk can be obtained from animals if they are affected.

At the meeting, participants concentrated their discussions on how to seek for more appropriate strategies in the national and continental contexts and practical and scientific actions for the training of physicians and nurses to fight the disease.

There are seven endemic provinces in Angola where the disease is prevalent, including Zaire, Uige, Kwanza Norte, Kwanza Sul, Malanje, Bengo and Luanda.

Official statistics suggest that more than 1,000 people are infected by the sleeping disease in Angola a year, although the government releases 2 million U.S. dollars annually to fight the sleeping sickness.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a country will be endemic in terms of trypanosomiasis when it records more than 150 new cases of the disease a year.

The sleeping sickness that was controlled in the 1970s reemerged and took epidemic and endemic proportions in Angola, Sudan, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.