Sleeping sickness
Developing new drugs to eliminate a deadly tropical disease
Sleeping sickness
Developing new drugs to eliminate a deadly tropical disease
We revolutionized the treatment of sleeping sickness with a simple, all-oral cure to replace toxic, cumbersome medicines. We are now advancing studies of a single-pill, single-dose treatment that could provide a radical boost for sustainable elimination.
Caused by parasites transmitted by the tsetse fly, people develop sleeping sickness (human African trypanosomiasis) after an initial phase with symptoms like headache and fever. In the second stage, parasites attack the central nervous system, causing sleep disruption, severe neuropsychiatric disorders, convulsions, and coma. Without treatment, it is usually fatal.
For decades, the only treatment available for sleeping sickness was melarsoprol, an arsenic derivative that killed 1 in 20 patients.
‘I lost weight, I had fever, I started talking to myself. I was hot, I couldn’t do anything. I was vomiting and couldn’t eat. By the time I made it to the hospital, I was near delirious: singing, rolling on the floor, dancing. I felt crazy.’
What we have achieved
We have revolutionized the treatment of sleeping sickness, replacing toxic, cumbersome medicines with a simple all-oral cure.
An all-new, all-oral patient-friendly treatment. Approved by the European Medicines Agency in 2018, DNDi’s first ‘new chemical entity’ cures the most common form of sleeping sickness in just 10 days of simple, 1-pill-per-day treatment.
Less common – but more severe. We evaluated fexinidazole to treat the less common T.b. rhodesiense strain of sleeping sickness found in Eastern and Southern Africa. A safe and effective alternative to current drugs, it was approved by the European Medicines Agency in 2023.
The first improved treatment for sleeping sickness. Before DNDi delivered nifurtimox and eflornithine combination therapy in 2009, doctors often had no choice but to treat sleeping sickness with melarsoprol, a highly toxic, arsenic-based drug that killed 1 in 20 patients.
What we are doing for people living with sleeping sickness
We are working towards reaching the last cases of sleeping sickness. Through our HAT Platform, a multi-country clinical research network, we continue to train local researchers and conduct clinical trials in remote and conflict-affected areas to develop even better tools to prevent resurgence.
Sleeping sickness news & resources
Making medical history for neglected patients
We develop urgently needed treatments for neglected patients and ensure they’re affordable, available, and adapted to the communities who need them
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