Health officials in Angola have reported 21 cases of African trypanosomiasis, or sleeping sickness in the past two weeks, according to a Agencia Angola Press report.
The cases, reported in the municipality of Banga, Cuanza Norte province, were detected during the prospecting campaign held by the Provincial Department of the Institute of Combat and Control of Trypanosomiasis (Icct).
Angelino Francisco Correia, the supervisor of the campaign, said that 2,800 had been examined, and 21 cases were diagnosed, of which five were confirmed as sleeping sickness patients.
Human African Trypanosomiasis, more commonly known as African sleeping sickness, is a parasitic disease which kills thousands in Sub-Saharan African every year, is primarily transmitted to humans via the bite of an infected tsetse fly as it takes a blood meal, with diagnosis then confirmed through the presence of parasites in the blood.
Read more on sleeping sickness: Travel health: African sleeping sickness
