Item Details

Title: Sleeping Sickness in Southeastern Uganda: A Systems Approach

Date Published: 2005
Author/s: Lea Berrang-Ford, David Waltner-Toews, Dominique Charron, Martin Odiit,
John McDermott and Barry Smit
Data publication:
Funding Agency :
Copyright/patents/trade marks:
Journal Publisher: EcoHealth Journal Consortium
Affiliation: Department of Population Medicine, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 2W1, Canada
2
Foodborne, Waterborne and Zoonotic Infections Division, Public Health Agency of Canada, Guelph, Ontario, Canada
3
Ministry of Health, Kampala, Uganda
4
International Livestock Research Institute, Nairobi, Kenya
5
Department of Geography, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 2W1, Canada
Keywords: sleeping sickness, trypanosomiasis, Uganda, tsetse, social conflict, systems approach

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