Population Knowledge and Practices and the Prevalence of Trypanosomes Circulating in Domestic Animals in Three Active Human African Trypanosomiasis Foci in the Republic of Congo

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The manuscript presents important entomoepidemiological information about Human African Trypanosomiasis. However, before final acceptance, I suggest the following modifications:

Line 3

Change “HAT” for “Human African Trypanosomiasis”

Lines 10, 15, 19 and 25

Delete “Introduction:”, “Methodology:”, “Results:” and “Conclusion:”

Line 20, 138, 141, 143, 144, 154, 155, table 1, 173, 235, 240

Change T. congolense for Triatoma congolense “forest type”

Change T. savannah for Triatoma congolense “savannah type”

Line 29

Do not repeat title words as keywords

Lien 33

Change “WHO” for “World Health Organization (WHO)”

Lines 34, 40, 43

All citations must be revised based on the journal's guidelines (eg [1] or [2,3], or [4–6] and no bold)

Line 49

Change “Republic of Congo” for “Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)”

Line 63, 223, 230, 249, 278, 282, 284

Change “Republic of Congo” for “DCR”

Line 80

Figure 1 is not mentioned in the text.

Line 170 (table 1), 188 (Table 2), 205 (Table 3)

Change “Ngab é” for “Ngabé”

Lines 217 and 221

Tables 6 and 7 need to be mentioned in the text.

Lines 224-227

“It should be noted that since the 1990s there have been less than 10 studies on HAT in Congo as a consequence there is large gaps in knowledge on the evolution of HAT cases in active foci, vector distribution, transmission dynamic, animal reservoir, population knowledge and practices.” - Authors must cite all works in that paragraph. It would be interesting if the authors included a table summarizing the main contributions of each published manuscript.

Line 233

Change “T. brucei gambiense” for “gHAT”

Line 311

All references need to be proofread, based on the journal's guidelines (for example, the name of the journal must be abbreviated and in italics, the year of publication in bold and the volume in italics)

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

-The main question of the author is "what are the factors contributing to the maintenance of HAT in this endemic area", however, the study shows the prevalence and identifies the parasites and knowledge of the population in the endemic area. I think the study doesn't answer the question. 

- the conclusion in the abstract need to be edited as the conclusion here is updating information on HAT animal reservoir and population knowledge. 

-The study filled the gap in knowledge of the population toward HAT and the prevalence of parasite species currently.

-The type of study should be mentioned in the statistical analysis (like a Cross-sectional study) 

- In discussion: the author stated that the majority of people wear black clothes while this factor hasn't been mentioned in the methodology or results sections. 

 

 

Author Response

Please see the attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.docx