Kenya was on August 2025 officially declared free of human African trypanosomiasis (HAT), also known as sleeping sickness, as a public health problem.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) announced on Friday, effectively making Kenya the tenth country in the world to achieve this milestone.
Kenya joins Benin, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Guinea, Rwanda, Togo and Uganda in eliminating sleeping sickness as a public health problem.
HAT becomes the second neglected tropical disease (NTD) to be eliminated in Kenya, following the eradication of Guinea worm disease in 2018.
“I congratulate the government and people of Kenya on this landmark achievement,” WHO Director General Tedros Ghebreyesus said in a statement.
“Kenya joins the growing ranks of countries freeing their populations of human African trypanosomiasis. This is another step towards making Africa free of neglected tropical diseases.”
HAT is a vector-borne disease caused by the blood parasite Trypanosoma brucei and transmitted to humans through the bites of infected tsetse flies.
