Human African trypanosomiasis, the fatal neurological disease better known as sleeping sickness, was thought to be nearly eradicated by 1965 as a result of a sophisticated multinational diagnosis and treatment effort undertaken over a period of decades.

But because of population displacement, political instability and collapse of health systems caused by civil wars, there has been a resurgence of this disease. The current epidemic affects people living in 36 Sub-Saharan countries, 22 of which are among the poorest in the world, including southern Sudan, northern Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola. Of the 60 million people currently at risk for contracting sleeping sickness, only four million have access to diagnosis and treatment.