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How do you get rid of sleeping sickness?
Trypanosoma brucei gambiense is found in west and central Africa. This form represents more than 90% of reported cases of sleeping sickness, and causes a chronic infection. A person can be infected for months or even years without major signs or symptoms of the disease.
When was the cure for sleeping sickness discovered?
Eventually, it was Ehrlich’s former assistant Wilhelm Roehl (1881–1929) who in 1916, with the help of a small team of chemists and the German chemical and pharmaceutical company Bayer, developed the first effective drug for treatment of sleeping sickness.
Is sleeping sickness curable?
Sleeping sickness is curable with medication but is fatal if left untreated.
What happens if a tsetse fly bites you?
A bite by the tsetse fly is often painful and can develop into a red sore, also called a chancre. 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.
How do you prevent African sleeping sickness?
African sleeping sickness is a disease caused by a parasite. It is passed on by the bite of the infected tsetse fly. The only risk factor is travel to parts of Africa where the tsetse fly is found. The only way to prevent the disease is to avoid insect bites.
What is the life cycle of African sleeping sickness?
African sleeping sickness has two life cycles: a stage in humans and a stage in tsetse flies. A human becomes infected when a tsetse fly takes a blood meal and injects metacyclic trypomastigotes (the parasites) into the skin, where they then go into the lymphatic system and finally pass into the blood stream.
How do you cure sleeping sickness?
Sleeping sickness, or trypanosomiasis , is treated with pentamidine or suramin (depending on subspecies of parasite) delivered by intramuscular injection in the first phase of the disease, and with melarsoprol and eflornithine intravenous injection in the second phase of the disease.
Is sleeping sickness a parasite?
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 blood.