Human African Trypaniosomiasis (HAT) or sleeping sickness is an old disease to
be now considered as reemergent. HAT is endemic in 36 sub-Saharan African
countries, in areas where tsetse flies are found. The public health importance
of HAT is underestimated, but the disease causes severe social disruption in
many rural areas. Along the past fifteen years, numerous studies were made, and
now, the mechanisms involved in the disease pathogenesis and in the
characteristics of sleep-wake disruption become to be better understood. But,
since 50 years, when current drugs were introduced, problems regarding HAT
chemotherapy have not been solved. Nevertheless, in-depth studies about
trypanosome metabolism have permitted to discover