Watering sites in Glossina fuscipes habitat as the major foci for the transmission of Gambiense sleeping sickness in an endemic area of southern Sudan.

In an area of endemic gambiense sleeping sickness in southern Sudan, the vegetation around 40 wells was categorised in terms of potential habitat for the vector, Glossina fuscipes, and the probability of repeated man/fly contact. These observations were related to the results of sleeping sickness surveys including the use of serodiagnostic (ICHA and CATT) tests which allowed the detection of the great majority of cases. Riverine woodland and gallery forest were the primary habitat of G. fuscipes and 1286 people using wells in this vegetation had an 11.1% infection rate including parasitological, clinical and serological cases. In contrast, 638 people using wells in open situations where the presence of G. fuscipes was unlikely, showed a significantly lower (4.5%) infection rate. These observations provide a basis for planning localised tsetse control, using, for example, insecticide impregnated targets, co-ordinated with mass survey and treatment of the human population.