PIP: African Sleeping Sickness is endemic in 37 countries of sub-Saharan Africa. Recent estimates suggest that 50 million people are at risk of acquiring the disease and 25,000 new cases are recorded every year. African Sleeping Sickness is caused by protozoan organisms belonging to the genus Trypanosoma which are transmitted cyclically by tsetse flies. The trypanosomes are limited in the early stage to the blood stream from which they later move to the central nervous system. The disease is very hard to diagnose and treat. Clinical manifestations are highly variable and unspecific, and parasitological diagnosis is difficult because of the frequently low and fluctuating parasitemia. Most of the available serological tests can only detect the presence of antibodies to trypanosomes and therefore only indicate exposure to trypanosomes rather than active infection. Clinical, parasitological, and serological diagnosis are discussed. Treatment of the disease remains dependent upon the use of Suramin and Pentamidine for early stage cases and Mel B for late stage cases when the central nervous system changes occur. Through compassionate clinical trials, however, eflornithine, formerly known as DFMO, was recently found to be an effective therapeutic agent against gambiense sleeping sickness. The drug acts by irreversibly blocking the action of ornithine decarboxylase, which catalyzes an essential step in polyamine synthesis, and stops the growth of trypanosomes. A multicenter conventional clinical trial is being arranged before it is made commercially available.