Epidemiological studies on the animal reservoir of gambiense sleeping sickness. Part I. Review of literature and description of the study areas.

A review of literature of the previous and recent evidence of potential animal reservoir hosts of gambiense sleeping sickness is given. A highly endemic sleeping sickness area in the Ivory Coast is described together with an area of recent low endemicity in southwestern Upper Volta. These areas were surveyed as part of a study on the significance of any potential animal reservoir of the disease. The results are described in detail in subsequent papers.