African
Chagas disease and sleeping sickness are both infectious diseases caused by the parasite Trypanosoma. In particular, Chagas disease is caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, while sleeping disease is caused by Trypanosoma gambiense. These parasites live in animals and can be transmitted from person to person.
American trypanosomiasis (Chagas disease) and human African trypanosomiasis (HAT; sleeping sickness) are both caused by single-celled flagellates that are transmitted by arthropods.
African trypanosomiasis, also called sleeping sickness, is a disease 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.
While melarsoprol works for both types, it is typically only used for TbR, due to serious side effects. Without treatment, sleeping sickness typically results in death. The disease occurs regularly in some regions of sub-Saharan Africa with the population at risk being about 70 million in 36 countries.
African trypanosomiasis or sleeping sickness is hallmarked by sleep and wakefulness disturbances. In contrast to other infections, there is no hypersomnia, but the sleep pattern is fragmented.
Because they tend to bite people's faces, triatomine bugs are also known as “kissing bugs”. After they bite and ingest blood, they defecate (poop) on the person. The person can become infected if T. cruzi parasites in the bug feces enter the body through mucous membranes or breaks in the skin.
The oral therapy — called fexinidazole — cured 91% of people with severe sleeping sickness, compared with 98% who were treated with the combination therapy. It also cured 99% of people in an early stage of the disease who would typically undergo a spinal tap to determine whether they needed infusions.
Sleeping sickness is curable with medication but is fatal if left untreated. For Healthcare Providers, Emergency Consultations, and General Public.
First-stage symptoms for both types of sleeping sickness include headache, malaise, weakness, fatigue, pruritis, and arthralgia. First-stage signs can include hepato-splenomegaly, weight loss and intermittent fevers lasting one day to one week. The intervals between fevers can last days or months.
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.
CSF testing is done after a parasitologic diagnosis has been made by microscopic examination of blood, lymph node aspirates, chancre fluid, or bone marrow or when indications of infection are present that justify a lumbar puncture (e.g., clinical signs and symptoms of sleeping sickness or strong serologic suspicion).
See your doctor if you live in or have traveled to an area where Chagas disease is widespread and you have signs and symptoms of the condition. Symptoms may include swelling at the infection site, fever, fatigue, body aches, rash and nausea.
University of Pennsylvania Health System: “Penn Study Shows Bed Bugs Can Transmit Parasite that Causes Chagas Disease.”
Chagas disease, or American trypanosomiasis, is caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi. Infection is most commonly spread through contact with the poop of an infected triatomine bug (or “kissing bug”), a blood-sucking insect that feeds on humans and animals.
Estimated Number of the Deaths
When left untreated, the mortality rate of African sleeping sickness is close to 100%. It is estimated that 50,000 to 500,000 people die from this disease every year.
African trypanosomiasis occurs in 36 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Around 10,000 new cases of African trypanosomiasis are reported each year.
East African sleeping sickness is caused by Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense. It's a short-term (acute) illness that may last several weeks to months. People from the U.S. who travel to Africa are rarely infected.
Chagas disease is an emerging disease in Australia. GPs are best placed to offer opportunistic Chagas disease screening to those at risk from endemic regions as they are likely to be the first point of contact.
They are found all over America, but species have also been found in Asia, Africa and Australia. Since kissing bugs feed off the blood of vertebrates, they are found living in close proximity to them.
Our kissing bug community science program started in 2012. Since then, almost 1,500 people have sent us over 7,000 kissing bugs for scientific research. About 55% of the kissing bugs are infected with the parasite, Trypanosoma cruzi, that causes Chagas disease.
This overview discusses that the causative agents, the parasites Trypanosoma brucei, target circumventricular organs in the brain, causing inflammatory responses in hypothalamic structures that may lead to dysfunctions in the circadian-timing and sleep-regulatory systems.
Fexinidazole. Nitroimidazole antiprotozoal drug indicated for treatment of African trypanosomiasis (HAT; sleeping sickness) caused by Trypanosome brucei gambiense in adults and children aged 6 years and older who weigh at least 20 kg. It is indicated for stage 1 (hemolymphatic) and stage 2 (meningoencephalitic) HAT.
From the sites of early localization of parasites in the brain and meninges, such molecules could affect adjacent brain areas implicated in sleep-wakefulness regulation, including the suprachiasmatic nucleus and its downstream targets, to cause the changes characteristic of the disease.