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Sleeping Sickness in Southeastern Uganda: A SystemsApproach

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Abstract

Sleeping sickness continues to be a significant public health burden in southeastern Uganda. Continued spread of the disease into new areas of Uganda highlights our inability to understand and predict the distribution of infection. Multiple factors influence the distribution of sleeping sickness, including climate, land cover, cattle movements, prevention and control activities, and social conflict. We draw on a systems approach to conceptualize and characterize the multiple interacting forces and processes that influence the spatial and temporal dynamics of sleeping sickness in Uganda. This synthesis reveals a complex system of interactions among human and biophysical systems, feedback, and scale dependence. We identify some common analytical modeling approaches relative to our system characterization and identify opportunities for sleeping sickness research and improved understanding of disease dynamics in Uganda.

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Acknowledgments

This work was performed with the aid of a grant from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Ottawa, Canada. Information on the Centre is available on the Worldwide Web athttp://www.idrc.ca. Research was also supported by funding from the National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the IDRC in Project 100106: “Links between Sleeping Sickness and Natural Resources Endowments and Use: What Can Communities Do?” Special thanks go to Dr. Mbulamberi, Ministry of Health, Uganda; Dr. Maiso, World Health Organization, Kampala; the late Dr. Thomas Gitau; and James Ford.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Population Medicine, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 2W1, Canada

    Lea Berrang-Ford & David Waltner-Toews

  2. Foodborne, Waterborne and Zoonotic Infections Division, Public Health Agency of Canada, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

    Dominique Charron

  3. Ministry of Health, Kampala, Uganda

    Martin Odiit

  4. International Livestock Research Institute, Nairobi, Kenya

    John McDermott

  5. Department of Geography, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 2W1, Canada

    Barry Smit

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  1. Lea Berrang-Ford
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  2. David Waltner-Toews
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  4. Martin Odiit
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  5. John McDermott
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  6. Barry Smit
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Correspondence to Lea Berrang-Ford.

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Berrang-Ford, L., Waltner-Toews, D., Charron, D. et al. Sleeping Sickness in Southeastern Uganda: A SystemsApproach. EcoHealth 2, 183–194 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10393-005-6331-9

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