Nairobi, 15–19 September 2025 — The 37th General Conference of the International Scientific Council for Trypanosomiasis Research and Control (ISCTRC) opened with an unmistakable message: measure better, act faster, and coordinate wider to finish the job against trypanosomiasis. Officiating the opening, Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary Sen. Mutahi Kagwe saluted the country’s recent WHO validation of Human African Trypanosomiasis (HAT) elimination as a public-health problem and challenged the continent to convert scientific progress into farmer-level impact. Flanked by PS Jonathan Mueke, Dr. Huyam Salih (Director, AU-IBAR), Geoffrey Mutai (Chair, KENTTEC) and partners from FAO, WHO, WOAH and IAEA, he called for innovation, partnerships and data-driven delivery that protect livelihoods and secure food systems.

“Protecting farmers means investing in innovation, adopting One Health technologies, and strengthening partnerships,” CS Kagwe said, linking trypanosomiasis control to food security, rural incomes and Africa’s Agenda 2063.

Why ISCTRC-37 mattered

A practical One Health pivot

In her keynote, Dr. Huyam Salih described trypanosomiasis as a “systems disease”—simultaneously eroding human health, animal productivity and rural resilience. She introduced the AU Digital One Health Platform (AU-DOHP) to tighten surveillance, standardise vector mapping, and align action between veterinary, public-health and environmental actors. The opening plenary brought major organisations to the same table—FAO/PAAT, WHO, WOAH, IAEA, ICIPE, FIND, DNDi, GALVmed, the Gates Foundation—signalling a broad front across policy, science and operations.

Science that shortens the path to decisions

HAT last-mile sessions focused on tools fit for ultra-low prevalence settings:

• Screen-and-treat strategies with acoziborole under evaluation as programmes hunt final cases.
• Pharmacovigilance for fexinidazole to ensure safe, effective use in routine care.
• Sharper diagnostics—from RT-qPCR on conserved blood to recombinant iELISA—to confirm infections when incidence is near zero.
• Programme informatics (e.g., TrypElim) that turn field data into searchable dashboards for targeting screening, outreach and vector control.

On the AAT (animal trypanosomiasis) side, FAO’s continental atlas and a wave of national atlases (Kenya, Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Cameroon and others) are reshaping how countries design Progressive Control Pathway (PCP) plans and align with the 2026–2035 continental strategy. The message: put maps and metrics at the heart of control, not just in publications.

Vectors: towards adaptive, cost-effective control

From Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) case studies (Zanzibar, Senegal) to Tiny Targets and biodegradable traps, teams showed how entomological data + simple models (increasingly with AI assistance) can time deployments, set stop/go thresholds, and stretch scarce budgets. New field methods—such as near-infrared spectroscopy to distinguish sterile vs. wild flies—promise faster operational feedback.

Socio-economy & climate on the main stage

Panels quantified the “hidden costs” of AAT—lost milk and meat, draught-power deficits, skin downgrades—and linked them to climate signals and land-use change. Take-home: prioritise transhumance corridors and livestock markets, integrate seasonality into vector strategies, and co-design interventions with communities to keep gains in place.

By the numbers

• 145 abstracts reviewed
• 127 presentations accepted: 88 oral and 39 posters
• Tracks: HAT (43); AAT (33); Tsetse biology & control (22); Land-use & socio-economics (10); Non-tsetse trypanosomes (7); PATTEC & country reports (12)

This breadth underscored an unusually operational ISCTRC—less theory, more “how to”.

What changes for programmes (the AfricaVET lens)

1) Standardise and open the data

• Scale national AAT atlases and ensure interoperability across borders.
• Equip programmes with quality dashboards: geo-referenced, up-to-date, with completeness checks and clear accountability chains.
• Link AU-DOHP nodes to national systems so One Health data flow both ways.

2) Fund “smart entomology”

• Expand Tiny Targets with adaptive thresholds: decide where to maintain, pause or redeploy based on fly density and seasonality.
• Where SIT is not feasible, test repellent-based or biodegradable trapping packages with rigorous M&E.
• Build regional entomology services (training, QA, reagent logistics) to avoid bottlenecks.

3) Finish the HAT endgame

• Deploy screen-and-treat (acoziborole) under appropriate ethics and pharmacovigilance.
• Strengthen confirmatory RT-qPCR and recombinant iELISA capacity for “silent” foci.
• Keep community engagement central—counter rumours, reduce delays in care-seeking.

4) Invest where impact is largest

• Prioritise high-traffic corridors (markets, border posts, transhumance routes).
• Use climate/land-use layers to schedule operations and pre-position supplies.
• Embed cost-tracking to compare options on cost-per-case averted or cost-per-km² protected.

Policy signal and partnerships

Kenya’s milestone on HAT shows elimination is not just aspirational. But the disease burden and tsetse challenge remain pan-African. Delegates repeatedly pointed to the value of PATTEC and RECs in orchestrating cross-border surveillance, harmonising insecticide resistance management, and aligning import/export rules when outbreaks flare. Development partners—FAO, WHO, WOAH, IAEA, and others—stressed that co-financed, data-anchored delivery is the fastest route to protect farmers’ herds, lift household incomes and steady regional trade.

What to watch (next 12–18 months)

• Digital: AU-DOHP roll-outs, integration of national atlases, and the first generation of country dashboards linking entomology, animal health and human surveillance.
• HAT: updated guidance on acoziborole use and a maturing fexinidazole safety dataset from routine programmes.
• AAT: expansion of PCP-aligned plans with clear budgets and M&E, plus pilots of AI-assisted vector-control scheduling.
• Finance: pooled procurement and shared QA for traps/targets and diagnostics; joint training hubs to reduce per-country costs.

Bottom line

ISCTRC-37 felt like a handover—from pilots to scale. With One Health architecture, trusted data, and a toolkit that ranges from drugs and diagnostics to targets and SIT, the continent has what it needs to push trypanosomiasis to the margins. The imperative now is delivery: getting the right tool, to the right place, at the right time—consistently—so farmers see the difference in healthier herds, stable incomes and resilient food systems.