Health Check

Guinea eliminates sleeping sickness

4 snips
Feb 5, 2025
Matt Fox, a Professor of Global Health at Boston University, Andrew Green, a global health journalist, and Dr. Wilfried Mutumbo-Kalungi, head of clinical operations at the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative, discuss the significant elimination of sleeping sickness in Guinea. They dive into the strategies that made this progress possible, like mass screening and vector control. The conversation also sheds light on the implications of recent shifts in US foreign aid policies on vital global health initiatives and highlights the ongoing challenges in regions like the Democratic Republic of Congo.
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INSIGHT

Sleeping Sickness Elimination

  • Guinea has eliminated sleeping sickness, a disease spread by tsetse flies.
  • This success is partly due to the flies' attraction to the color blue, used in traps.
INSIGHT

USAID Shakeup

  • The US Agency for International Development (USAID) is being integrated into the State Department.
  • This raises concerns about potential disruptions to global health programs due to loss of specialized expertise and potential political influence.
INSIGHT

Lung Cancer Trends

  • Lung cancer rates are shifting towards non-smokers, possibly due to increased pollution exposure.
  • This shift may also reflect decreasing lung cancer rates among smokers.
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