Histoire d’un itinéraire épidémiologique entre le Burkina Faso et la Côte d’Ivoire : le cas des foyers de maladie du sommeil de Koudougou

In the first half of the XXth century, while Upper-Volta (now Burkina Faso) was suffering a terrible epidemic of sleeping sickness, the French colonial administration encouraged the movement of people from Upper-Volta to Ivory Coast to meet their demands for labour. This led to the establishment of Mossi villages, such as those of Koudougou, in the Ivorian forest with populations originating from areas of Upper-Volta that were not only densely populated but also severely affected by sleeping sickness. Since 2000, most cases of sleeping sickness in the Koudougou district of Burkina Faso have been in people originally from Ivory Coast. Who are they? Where did they settle in Burkina Faso? Where do they come from in Ivory Coast? After having retraced the epidemiological history of Koudougou villages in Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast, the history of ten cases of sleeping sickness detected passively at Koudougou hospital since 2000 were analysed. All cases originated from the forest area of Ivory Coast. Understanding the spread of sleeping sickness between Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast will assist in the identification of areas of disease risk.