A new ‘simple’ approach to treating sleeping sickness appears to be highly effective, researchers report today.
The medication acoziborole, taken orally, has shown 95% effectiveness for adult and adolescent patients, when tested 18 months after treatment.
Acoziborole is an antiprotozoal drug, a group of drugs used for diseases caused by a protozoan infection, which also includes dysentery and malaria.
Current treatments for sleeping sickness – also known as human African trypanosomiasis – require multiple days of treatment, hospitalisation or extensive training.
The new study, published today in *The Lancet Infectious Diseases* involves a single dose of acoziborole, taken orally at 960mg.
It was given to 167 patients with late stage disease and 41 with early to intermediate stage disease at ten hospitals in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Guinea.
At the 18 month follow up, all early to intermediate stage patients were classed as cured, with no parasites present in body fluids.
The vast majority (95%) of those with late stage disease were cured. This represents a similar success rate to the previous standard treatment, nifurtimox eflornithine combination therapy. Side effects were rare and mild.
Lead author Dr Antoine Tarral of the World Health Organization’s Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative says the drug could help eliminate sleeping sickness transmission by 2030.
He said: "Sleeping sickness threatens millions of people across sub-Saharan Africa. Many of the people at risk live in remote rural areas where there is little access to adequate health services, and where acoziborole has the potential to revolutionise treatment for sleeping sickness."
He adds that acoziborole "opens the door to screen-and-treat approaches at the village level".
Kumeso, V. K. B. et al. Efficacy and safety of acoziborole in patients with human African trypanosomiasis caused by Trypanosoma brucei gambiense: a multicentre, open-label, single-arm, phase 2/3 trial. 30 November 2022 doi: 10.1016/S1473-3099(22)00660-0
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