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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 September 2011
It is now nearly a century since systematic research started on tsetse, the principal vector of animal trypanosomiasis or “nagana” and human “sleeping sickness”. This major research effort was the consequence of the outbreak of a traumatic epidemic of sleeping sickness which swept through Uganda and what is now western Kenya in 1901, leading to the depopulation of that region through death and out-migration; the then colonial government appointed a Royal Commission to find a lasting solution to this tropical disease of crucial social and economic importance. importance. In spite of large-scale control campaigns carried out since that time in many parts of Africa—by colonial governments (British, French, Portuguese, and Belgian) in the first half of this century; and since then by specialized agencies of international organizations (the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, the International Atomic Energy Agency, etc.), and several aid agencies (U.S. Agency for International Development, The Netherlands Government, the Canadian International Development Agency, etc.)—the lasting solution to trypanosomiasis and tsetse vector control which we started seeking some 90 years ago still eludes us.