europe approves first treatment for sleeping sickness that relies on pills alone global healthparasites transmitted by tsetse flies travel to the brain causing paranoia fury and death until now killing them required hospitalization and harsh drugscreditneil brandvolddndinov 16 2018the first treatment for sleeping sickness that relies on pills alone was approved on friday by europes drug regulatory agency paving the way for use in africa the last bastion of the horrific diseasewith treatment radically simplified sleeping sickness could become a candidate for elimination experts said because there are usually fewer than 2000 cases in the world each yearthe disease also called human african trypanosomiasis is transmitted by tsetse flies the protozoan parasites injected as the flies suck blood burrow into the brain before they kill drive their victims mad in ways that resemble the last stages of rabiesthe personalities of the infected change they have terrifying hallucinations and fly into rages they have been known to beat their children and even attack family members with machetes they may become ravenous and scream with pain if water touches their skin only in the end do they lapse into a long coma and diethe new drug fexinidazole cures all stages of the disease within 10 dayspreviously everyone with the parasites found in a blood test also had to undergo a spinal tap to see if the parasites had reached their brains if so patients had to suffer through a complex and sometimes dangerous intravenous regimen requiring hospitalizationan oral treatment that can safely be taken at home is a completely new paradigm it could let us bring treatment down to the village level said dr bernard pecoul founder and executive director of the drugs for neglected diseases initiative which was started in 2005 by the medical charity doctors without borders to find new cures for tropical diseasesimagecreditxavier vaheddndiprevious treatments for sleeping sickness ranged from inconvenient to nightmarish the current intravenous drug eflornithine must be given over many days with intravenous fluids that weigh about 125 pounds a big burden in the supply chain for rural hospitals dr pecoul saidlike the science times page on facebook sign up for the science times newslettermelarsoprol the intravenous treatment used until a decade ago contains an arsenic derivative it corroded veins triggered convulsions and killed 5 percent of the patients who got itan alloral treatment has been a dream of mine for decades said dr victor kande an adviser to the health ministry of the democratic republic of congo who oversaw clinical trials of the drug this is a huge leap in how we can tackle this diseasegetting fexinidazole tested and approved is one of the neglected disease initiatives biggest triumphsthe drug was created in the 1980s by hoechst a german drug company but later abandonedin 2009 seeking new antiparasitic medicines the initiative asked sanofi which held the patent to reformulate it for sleeping sicknessultimately the drive for approval cost 63 million and involved clinical trials including 750 patients in congo and the central african republic