Will spent last year working as a key part of MSF’s mobile sleeping sickness team in areas throughout central Africa. The international team, made up of a laboratory technician, a medical doctor, two logisticians and a project coordinator, work together with national doctors, nurses, laboratory staff, logisticians and community outreach workers, in countries with a high prevalence and/or historical foci of sleeping sickness to implement active village screening and treatment, along with training, surveillance, and advocacy. The aim is simple: to save lives and work together with national programmes toward sustained elimination of the disease in the areas in which we are working.

Today, he is on his way to South Sudan with the mobile sleeping sickness team where a recent MSF exploration revealed concerning rates of the disease in areas of Central, Eastern and Western Equatoria states, indicating there is likely to be far more people with the fatal disease undetected. MSF is planning a medical intervention (active screening and treatment), starting in September – as soon as the end of the rainy season allows access. During his visit Will is looking forward to providing regular updates about his experience. Watch this space for his first update due in early October….

Will on his previous project © MSF