Den frygtede lidelse, sovesyge, er i fremmarch i Tanzania og det skyldes bl.a., at millioner af småbønder er i tæt kontakt med vildtet i de store reservater og naturparker.
ARUSHA, 27 February 2012 (IRIN): Tackling land-use conflicts around game parks must form part of the national strategy to stop the spread of sleeping sickness, warn doctors fighting the disease in Tanzania.
Tanzania’s booming tourism industry has been driven largely by its wildlife parks, which contribute almost 1,8 billion US dollar a year to the economy. But the expansion of these areas, which now cover more than a third of the country, has major consequences for the rural population.
A growing number of communities find their villages “squeezed” between wildlife areas, putting them at risk from tsetse flies that spread Trypanosomiasis or sleeping sickness, a debilitating (invaliderende) and often fatal disease.
The impala, wildebeest (gnuer), buffalo, giraffe, zebra and rhino in the parks are seen as excellent reservoirs for the disease, which is most prevalent from Kigoma at Lake Tanganyika to Arusha in the northern part of the country.
Imna Malele, researcher at the Tsetse & Trypanosomiasis Research Institute (TTRI) in Tanga, wants planning to form part of the national strategy to tackle the disease:
“Proper plans on land use could help in sleeping sickness control. I would suggest that parks be surrounded by buffer (stødpude) zones, and wildlife management areas, and in these areas tsetse control should be stepped up to stop the flies reaching the villages.”
Sleeping sickness is endemic (findes over alt) in Tanzania. In advanced stages, the disease attacks the central nervous system.
The result is that people experience changes in personality, alteration of the biological clock – hence its name – and difficulty walking and talking. These problems can develop over many years and if not treated, result in death.
Furaha Mramba, director of TTRI, said efforts to stamp out the disease faced numerous challenges in Tanzania – from scarce resources to the laborious process needed to develop traps and targets and poaching (krybskytteri), which disturbs animal populations and transfers the fly larvae outside the parks.
In addition, one of the biggest challenges is the increasing population, expected to grow by 2 percent in 2012, according to the World Bank, with more than 75 percent of the total 37 million living in rural areas.
Mramba said: “All the huts are concentrated right along the borders of the parks, which is aggravating the problem. There are ‘hedge effects’ (naboeffekter) of people living head-to-toe with the border of national parks. Land use is a real problem.”
Ignas Lejora, ecology manager at the Tanzania National Park Authority (TANAPA), said:
“There is no clear-cut solution – maybe the way forward is to plan land use in these infested areas.”
Misdiagnosis
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