Sleeping sickness breakthrough announced

From CBC News:
A breakthrough in treating sleeping sickness has been announced by British and Canadian researchers.

They say they have found a compound that can kill the parasite that causes the disease by halting its growth on an enzymatic level, opening the door to drugs that will be able to fight the disease. Sleeping sickness kills 30,000 Africans each year.

"This is one of the most significant findings made in recent years in terms of drug discovery and development for neglected diseases," said Prof. Paul Wyatt, director of the drug discovery for tropical diseases program at the University of Dundee, Scotland, in a release.

Sleeping sickness is a fatal parasitic disease that afflicts tens of thousands of sub-Saharan Africans globally. The disease, known as trypanosomiasis, spreads through the bite of a tsetse fly. ...more