Events
2 February 2007, United Nations Conference
Centre, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Special Donor's Conference on PATTEC
The Head of FIND’s human African
trypanosomiasis (HAT) Diagnostics Programme, Dr.
Joseph Ndung’u, attended a special donors’
conference dedicated to the Pan African Tsetse
and Trypanosomiasis Eradication Campaign (PATTEC)
on 2 February 2007, at the United Nations
Conference Centre in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Special guests included the Ethiopian Prime
Minister, Meles Zenawi, and Minister of
Agriculture and Rural Development, Addisu
Legesse; African Development Bank (ADB)
President Donald Kaberuka and Vice-President O
Kane (Ousmane); and the Chairperson of the
African Union (AU) Commission, Professor Alpha
Oumar Konare. With more than 60 million people
in Africa at risk of being infected in areas
where the tsetse vector is found sleeping
sickness is one of today’s major neglected
infectious diseases. The disease, endemic in 37
countries of sub-Saharan Africa, usually occurs
in impoverished rural areas.
Recognizing the seriousness of the disease
and its tremendous socio-economic costs, African
countries adopted the PATTEC initiative during a
summit held in Lome, Togo, in 2000 to coordinate
efforts, develop strategies and seek support to
eliminate the disease. The African Union’s
Department of Rural Economy and Agriculture is
responsible for initiating and coordinating
activities related to PATTEC in several
countries. A number of other donors have either
joined the initiative or are preparing to do so.
The primary objectives of the conference,
which brought together African Ministers, heads
of development organizations and senior
officials in charge of tsetse and
trypanosomiasis control in countries affected by
the disease, were to enable participants to make
presentations on the impact of the disease in
each country, share ideas and report on what
actions governments are taking or planning to
carry out to address the disease.
Many of the presenting countries demonstrated
their commitment to the PATTEC initiative
evidenced by allocation of funds to tsetse and
trypanosomiasis control in their annual budgets.
A co-host at the meeting, the ADB, is funding
the initiative through projects in six countries
(Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Mali, Burkina Faso and
Ghana) from 2005-2011, in addition to a support
that amounts to US 70 million dollars in soft
loans and grants. At the end of this period, 13
million hectares should be freed from tsetse and
trypanosomiasis infestations.
ADB is also assisting the AU and African
countries to develop a solid framework through
which countries engaged in achieving PATTEC’s
goals receive support. During the meeting, ADB
pledged further support and the WHO also
reported that it has mobilized significant
resources for the control of sleeping sickness.
The PATTEC initiative’s main objectives are
to increase awareness of the harmful impact of
trypanosomiasis and the feasibility for its
eradication; mobilize the commitment and support
necessary for eradicating the disease; and
initiate, organize and sustain action in
selected project areas to eliminate
trypanosomiasis.
Promising results of these efforts include
the official opening of a tsetse mass-rearing
centre in Kaliti, Ethiopia, on 3 February 2007,
the eradication of the tsetse fly in Namibia and
Botswana and the development of strategies to
address the disease. However, although African
countries have shown a commitment to fulfill
PATTEC’s objectives, countries most hit by the
disease must also face other important health
challenges that require attention from the rest
of the world.
PATTEC:
http://www.africa-union.org/Structure_of_the_Commission/depPattec.htm
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