Sleeping+Sickness+Disease

a. Sleeping sickness (African trypanosomiasis) b. Cause: Infected tsetse flies (Tsetse flies carrying //Trypanosoma brucei gambiense// or //Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense//) c. Affected systems: The blood stream, lymphatic system and the nervous system (particularly the blood-brain barrier) d. Historical background: About 380 million years ago, Salivarian trypanosomes (the group to which the sleeping sickness trypanosomes belongs) were found to be gut parasites in early insects (Haag J, 1998). Tsetse flies were discovered 35 million years ago and found to cause sleeping sickness in humans, this explains the reason why wild animals were found to be more resistant to these strains of Trypanosoma and also because they existed for a lot longer than humans. The first case was reported by Ibn Khaldun, an Arabian historian. It said that sleeping sickness was the cause of the death of the Malian emperor, Sultan Mari Jata (Williams, 1996). David Livingston who was a scotish missionary and explorer who suggested that nagana is caused by the bites of tsetse fly (Sterverding, 2008). An American chemist Walter A. Jacobs and the American immunologist Michael Heidelberger the first drug to treat late-stage sleeping sickness (the organo-arsenical tryparsamide) (Steverding, 2008). e. Common symptoms: First stage: bouts of fever, headaches, joint pains and itching. Second stage: The main symptom in the second stage is a disturbance of the sleep cycle. Others include changes in behavior, confusion, sensory disturbances and poor coordination. f. Standard treatments: First stage: Pentamidine (for //T.b gambiense//) and Suramin (for //T.b rhodesiense//) Second stage: Melarsoprol for both types, Eflornithine (for //T.b gambiense//) g. Current research: In 2010, Kent Hill and his team discovered that the Tryansoma bacteria congregate in groups on the surfaces of host cells and communicate with each other. This made the group of researchers realize that it may be possible to spread molecules of medication over host cells so that as they attempt to interact with each other through proteins, they will take up medication (Hill, 2009). The discovered the flagella are also very important for the advancement of the drug treatment.

Haag J, O. C. (1998). The molecular phylogeny of trypanosomes: evidence for an early divergence of the Salivaria. //Molecular Biochemistry of Parasitology//, 39-47. Hill. (2009). The Trypanosoma brucei Flagellum: Moving Parasites in New Directions. //Annual Review of Microbiology//, 335-362. Steverding. (2008). The history of African trypanosomiasis. //Parasite Vectors//, 3. Williams. (1996). //African trypanosomiasis.// London: The Wellcome Trust.
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