A group of scientists has discovered a new treatment for sleeping sickness which has reached epidemic proportions in some parts of Central Africa.

The disease is fatal if left untreated and is caused by a parasite carried by the tsetse fly.

It is estimated that up to half a million people have been infected and that more than 60 million are threatened by the disease.

The current treatment is long and complicated, but now a shorter programme has been tested in patients in Angola, according to the British medical journal, The Lancet.

Cheaper

When an individual is infected, the parasite multiplies in the blood and lymph glands.

It then gets into the central nervous system and causes major neurological disorders.

Even with successful treatment some of the neurological changes can be irreversible.

A team of doctors from Switzerland and Angola treated 250 patients with the drug melarsoprol for 26 days and another group of 250 for 10 days.

The team found that effects of the treatment were similar for each group but that far fewer patients deviated from the drug regime in the shorter programme.

Researchers believe the shorter treatment programme will give a practical and economic alternative to the current method.

This will save money on drugs and hospitalisation in epidemic situations and in areas with limited resources for health care.