Sleeping Sickness

How do you know you have it?What are the symptoms?How do you treat it?

Chelsea Fournier Hour 3

Sleeping Sickness- African Trypanosomiasis

Sleeping sickness is an infection with germs carried by certain flies. It results in swelling of the brain.

Its caused by 2 germs, Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense and Trypanosomoa brucei gambiense. More severe form of illness is caused by Trypanosoma rhodesiense.

Tsetse flies carry the infection. When it bites you, the infection spreads through your blood.

The vector is the Tsetse fly. The disease develops slowly and if treatment is delayed, it

usually proves fatal. It said that most tsetse flies are not infected with the

parasite, but the flies bite is often very painful.

I visited Africa to help the less fortunate children and I got bit by a fly but I didn’t think it was a big deal but when I returned I started getting some of the symptoms…

What happened next…

When I returned home I noticed that where I got bit wasn’t a normal bite, it began to swell up and became red and painful. I also began to run a fever so I knew something was wrong, I went to the doctor and they said I had sleeping sickness. The way its diagnosed is by taking a blood sample, fluid from lymph nodes or cerebrospinal fluid. They prescribed me with some medication.

Other Symptoms

Anxiety Fever Mood changes Seating Swollen, red, painful nodule at site of fly bite Weakness Insomnia at night Sleepiness (may be uncontrolled) Swollen Lymph nodes all over body

Treatment(medication used to treat disorder)

Eflomithine- Slows growth of unwanted hair on women’s face.The side effects of this medication are stinging, burning, or tingling of skin,

redness of the skin, skin rash, acne, swollen patches of skin that are reddened and contain a buried hair.

Melarsoprol- Prologue of parasiteThe side effects of this medication are convulsions, fever, loss of consciousness,

rashes, bloody stools, nausea, and vomiting. Pentamidine- fights protozoa in the bodyThe side effects of this medication are different depending on your blood sugar.

If you have low blood sugar it could cause an increase in appetite, headache, chills, pale skin, shakes, cold-sweats, and anxiety. If you have high blood sugar it could increase thirst, loss of appetite, increased in amount of frequency of urination, fruity smelling breath and drowsiness

Suramin Some patients may receive combination therapy

Risk factors

Living in parts of Africa where the disease is found and being bitten by tsetse flies.

The disease is very rare in the U.S., and is only found in travelers who have visited or lived in Africa.

Life Cycle Starts when the trypanosomes are ingested during a

blood meal by the tsetse fly from a human reservoir in West African tryponosomiasis or an animal reservoir in the East African form.

The trypanosomes multiply over a period of 2-3 weeks in the fly midgut, then, the trypanosomes migrate to the salvary gland, where they develop into epimastigotes. The metacyclic trypomastigotes infect humans.

The reservoirs of infection for these vectors are exclusively human in West African trypanosomiasis. East African trypanosomiasis is a zoonotic infection with animal vectors.