HEALTH experts from seven central African countries held talks on Tuesday in Bangui aimed at relaunching a regional campaign against African trypanosomiasis, or sleeping sickness. At the talks in the Central African capital, the experts condemned the slack efforts to combat the illness, transmitted by the tse-tse fly, in the region over the past ten years. The meetings will allow the experts to map where and to what extent sleeping sickness affects the central African region, and to exchange information concerning the fight against the illness. Health ministers from Angola, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Chad will then meet on Friday to sign a sub-regional cooperation agreement on fighting the disease. Tse-tse flies are endemic in parts of west and central Africa, and the disease they carry is believed to cause 100 000 deaths in Africa every year. – AFP