Sleeping sickness - Actions

Partnership with the WHO – 2001 - 2006

Thanks to the initial partnership with the WHO, between 2001 and 2006, more than 320,000 vials of pentamidine, over 420,000 vials of melarsoprol and over 200,000 bottles of eflornithine, produced by sanofi-aventis and given to the WHO, have been distributed to countries where the disease is endemic, thanks to the logistics of the association Doctors Without Borders (known as MSF - Médecins sans Frontières).

The financial contribution, supplementing the donation of drugs, helped bolster national anti-HAT programs. Over 300 people (field staff) were trained by the WHO. The staffing reinforcements, as well as the technical and financial support for anti-HAT activities, meant that there has been a significant increase in the number of people screened and treated.

In this way, nearly 14 million diagnoses have been made during the five years of the partnership. This has thus greatly contributed to stemming the spread of sleeping sickness, to saving nearly 110,000 lives and to changing the epidemiological profile of the disease, meaning that eliminating it altogether can now be envisaged.

Given its experience and all that was learned from the first partnership, the sanofi-aventis Group's senior management decided in 2006 to continue supporting WHO activities for another five years.