Why is African sleeping sickness called that?
African trypanosomiasis is a parasitic disease transmitted by the tsetse fly. It gets its nickname ‘sleeping sickness’ because symptoms can include a disturbed sleep pattern.
How does African sleeping sickness affect sleep?
African trypanosomiasis or sleeping sickness is a complex disease that involves a constellation of symptoms, but is hallmarked, during disease progression, by the onset of disturbances of sleep/wake alternation during 24 h and by alterations in the organization of sleep.
What happens in sleeping sickness disease?
Sleeping sickness is caused by two types of parasites Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense and Trypanosomoa brucei gambiense. T b rhodesiense causes the more severe form of the illness. Tsetse flies carry the infection. When an infected fly bites you, the infection spreads through your bloodstream.
What are the three stages of disease for African sleeping sickness?
African trypanosomiasis is caused by Trypanosoma brucei gambiense in West and Central Africa and by T. b. rhodesiense in East Africa; tsetse flies are the main vector. There are 3 stages of disease: cutaneous, hemolymphatic, and CNS (sleeping sickness).
How does African sleeping sickness cause death?
In some cases, symptoms may include a large sore (chancre) on the area bitten by the tsetse fly. Unless treated in the early stages of infection, the parasite will invade the central nervous system within a space of few weeks. Death usually occurs within several months.
Who does African sleeping sickness affect?
Sleeping sickness threatens millions of people in 36 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Many of the affected populations live in remote rural areas with limited access to adequate health services, which complicates the surveillance and therefore the diagnosis and treatment of cases.
What is the symptoms of African trypanosomiasis?
Fever, severe headaches, irritability, extreme fatigue, swollen lymph nodes, and aching muscles and joints are common symptoms of sleeping sickness. Some people develop a skin rash. Progressive confusion, personality changes, and other neurologic problems occur after infection has invaded the central nervous system.
How does tsetse fly look like?
Tsetse flies are rather drab in appearance: their colour varies from yellowish brown to dark brown, and they have a gray thorax that often has dark markings. The abdomen may be banded. The stiff, piercing mouthparts, directed downward as the fly bites, are held horizontally at other times.
How does sleeping sickness cause death?
Humans are infected by two types, Trypanosoma brucei gambiense (TbG) and Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense (TbR). TbG causes over 98% of reported cases. Both are usually transmitted by the bite of an infected tsetse fly and are most common in rural areas….
| African trypanosomiasis | |
|---|---|
| Deaths | 3,500 (2015) |
Is African sleeping sickness a virus?
Human African trypanosomiasis, also known as sleeping sickness, is a vector-borne parasitic disease. It is caused by infection with protozoan parasites belonging to the genus Trypanosoma.
What does sleeping sickness look like?
How does a Trypanosoma move?
Trypanosomes move actively and progress by movement of the undulating membrane and the free flagellum (when present), which acts as a kind of propeller, thus drawing themselves through the blood plasma or tissue fluid. (The free flagellum, when present, arises from the anterior [front] end of the parasite.)
How dangerous is African sleeping sickness?
African trypanosomiasis disease, also called sleeping sickness, is caused by a parasite. People can get this parasite when an infected Tsetse fly bites them. Symptoms include fatigue, high fever, headaches, and muscle aches. If the disease is not treated, it can cause death.
What helps get rid of the African sleeping sickness?
Confusion
What is the causative agent of African sleeping sickness?
Sleeping sickness is caused by parasites transmitted by infected tsetse flies and is endemic in 36 sub-Saharan African countries where there are tsetse flies that transmit the disease. Without treatment, the disease is considered fatal.
What protists is known to cause African sleeping sickness?
Animal trypanosomiasis. Other parasite species and sub-species of the Trypanosoma genus are pathogenic to animals and cause animal trypanosomiasis in wild and domestic animals.