The Human African Trypanosomiasis, more commonly referred to as African sleeping sickness, is a biological vector-borne parasitic ("Trypanosomiasis, human african," 2014). The communicable infection is caused by protozoan parasite of the genus Trypanosoma. Transmission occurs to humans by tsetse flies bites. The tsetse flies acquire infection when feeding on blood containing trypomastigotes from infected humans or animals. The parasite will go through asexual reproduction in the fly gut, evolving from a procyclic trypomastigotes to epimastigotes. Eventually moving to the salivary glands of the Tsetse fly where they transform to a metacyclic trypomastigote, which is infectious to humans. Transmission from fly to human happens when an infected tsetse fly passes metacyclic trypomastigotes within the saliva into the blood while feeding. This then becomes trypomastigotes and will proliferate in the blood and other bodily fluids, which leads to disease (Krafsur, 2008). In Africa the tsetse flies inhabit the greenery around rivers, ponds and lakes additionally the disease has posed an immediate health & economic problem across Sub-Saharan Africa.
There are two types of the protozoan parasite disease that infect humans. Trypanosoma rhodesiense East African sleeping sickness is found in areas of eastern and southeastern Africa. Well over 95% of human infection takes place in Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, and Zambia. The primary reservoir for the infection is animals. Cattle are being looked at in the spread of the disease to uninfected areas where new outbreaks occur. Also wild animal are thought to be responsible scattered transmission to outdoor enthusiast and hunters visiting Africa’s publicized game parks. The Infection has found i...
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...rld Health Organization in conjunction through a private partnership with Sanofi and Bayer AG in endemic countries (World Health Organization, 2014).
Getting early diagnosis of African sleeping sickness is essential in view of the diseases natural grim outcome and the toxicity of the medications prescribed during either stage treatment. A blood sample would be a collected to determine if the parasite Trypanosoma rhodesiense is present because the higher levels of parasitaemia found in the blood. As for Trypanosoma brucei gambiense it’s found through a lymph node aspirate due to its lack of presence in the blood. Once confirmed to be infected the collection of Cerebrospinal fluid needs to be taken to see if the central nervous system is compromised. This will indicate disease stage and which course of drug treatment is used ("CDCParasites - African," 2012).
This link goes to the Center for Disease Control and provides some basics about West and East African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness). It also includes a weekly Morbidity and Mortality Report (MMWR).
This disease may be on the brink of being eradicated entirely but that doesn’t stop it from being one of the grossest things that anyone has ever seen. The parasite enters the body via unsafe drinking water. When people drink water infected with water fleas that have have been hosting the larvae of the parasite. There are no symptoms, to begin with, but about one year later, blisters on the feet or legs begin to develop and then the adult fully developed worm crawls out of the host body over a period of a few weeks. It’s said that the pain is intense and can incapacitate a person for weeks at a time. The pain can also continue for months after the infection. The parasite needs to infect a person at least once a year in order to continue. There were an estimated 3.5 million cases in 1986 but the disease has been greatly reduced over time and only 22 cases were reported in 2015. This disease will probably be the first parasitic disease to be completely eradicated in humans.
There are a number of symptoms associated with quick detection of malaria they are, being irritable, troubled sleep, poor appetite and drowsiness. Soon after people infected usua...
Glassman, A., & Temin, . (2016). Millions Saved New Cases of Proven Success in Global Health. Ctr for Global Development.
is spread to humans by fleas from infected rodents. In the 1300s, fourth of the population
Dian Fossey was so driven to protect mountain gorillas because they are an endangered species. Several threats have kept their population from thriving. One threat is disease, especially those which humans are equally as vulnerable to (Ferber, 2000). Tourists enjoy visiting the mountains of Rwanda to admire the gorillas and encourage their safety; however, humans help put mountain gorillas at risk. In 1999, a team of researchers with the Journal of Parasitology noted roundworm parasites in the feces of mountain gorillas (Ferber, 2000). These parasites normally have affected only humans through contaminated water. Early, in 1988, blood and tissue samples of several mountain gorillas indicated measles infection (Ferber, 2000).
Helminthes or parasites, often called “worms” are among the most prevalence of chronic human infections worldwide. Soil-transmitted infections are caused by different species of parasitic worms. There are over 340 species of helminthes; most are rare in humans but may infect animals that can serve as a reservoir for infection but there are four main nematodes species of human soil-transmitted helminthes infections. Ascaris lumbricoides (round worm), trichuris trichura (whipworm), Ancylostoma duodenale and Necator americanus (hookworm). These four helminthes are commonly associated with malnutrition, including anemia. Pregnant women are at risk of nutritional deficiencies caused by helminthes infections Soil-transmitted helminthes have been as causing impairment of growth and nutrition. The hookworm damage the intestinal mucosa leading to bleeding, loss of iron and anemia infections by trichuris trichura produce chronic reduction of food intake. During pregnancy, mild or several infections with hookworm can cause anemia to the mother and damage to the fetus, leading to low birth weight. Several large-scale studies have demonstrated that deworming and iron supplements reduced anemia among pregnant women and have led positive birth outcomes. At the global level it is estimated that intestinal parasite infections affect more than one-third of the world’s population with the highest rates in school-age children. These infections are most prevalent in tropical and sub-tropical regions of the developing world where adequate water...
Trypanosoma brucei, the parasite, is not very common in the United States but is very common in Africa. Trypanosoma brucei is a disease that kills many people throughout Africa. Though we may not have it here it still affects people, in this paper we are going to look at the different ways T. brucei will infect people, the life cycle, the pathophysiology, the epidemiology, the signs and symptoms of the host, and last the different medicines that cure T. brucei. Trypanosoma brucei is a very serious illness and we will look how T. brucei turns into the West African trypanosomiasis and different ways to prevent getting infected by the parasite. The Africa sleeping sickness is another major thing I will be talking about, and the different
Imagine you have just returned from a safari to Africa. You soon develop a fever, swollen lymph nodes, and as time goes on you begin to have trouble sleeping. Eventually you cannot stay awake during the day or sleep at night, you begin to lose coordination, and if left untreated you could go into a coma and die within six months. While in Africa, you contracted African Trypanosomiasis, better known as sleeping sickness. You contracted this disease from one of the smallest animals you encountered on your safari, the tsetse fly. The tsetse fly carries a parasitic protest known as trypanosoma brucei that causes sleeping sickness. The tsetse fly has helped spread this disease throughout sub-Saharan Africa causing outbreaks that have ravaged populations since the fourteenth century.
O. volvulus is a nematode which has a habitat in Africa. It has been seen primarily within the region that contains Tanzania, Uganda, and southern Sudan. The life cycle of O. volvulus begins as a microfilaria within human skin. When a fly feasts on human blood, the microfilaria is ingested. The microfilaria goes through a short period of growth while within the gut of the fly. After this growth period, it makes its way into a human’s bloodstream. It then matures in the bloodstream over a period of several months. Once the maturation is complete, it migrates to the fat of the human host to mate, and the
World Health Organisation. 2006. The World Health Report 2006 – Working together for health. Geneva: World Health Organisation.
Malaria is a deadly disease that is transmitted to humans via bites from infected female mosquitos carrying malaria parasites. People who develop the disease often become “very sick with high fever, shaking chills, and flu-like symptoms” (CDC). According to National Geographic, "malaria now affects more people than ever before. It's endemic to 106 nations, threatening half the world's population…This year malaria will strike up to a half billion people. At least a million will die, most of them under age five, the vast majority living in Africa,” (National Geographic). The high concentration of malaria-afflicted citizens in Africa can be attributed to the conducive climate for mosquitos, the sheer number of mosquitos, and most importantly, the inability for many countries to sustain enough anti-malarial resources, medical care, and preventative measu...
Malaria (also called biduoterian fever, blackwater fever, falciparum malaria, plasmodium, Quartan malaria, and tertian malaria) is one of the most infectious and most common diseases in the world. This serious, sometimes-fatal disease is caused by a parasite that is carried by a certain species of mosquito called the Anopheles. It claims more lives every year than any other transmissible disease except tuberculosis. Every year, five hundred million adults and children (around nine percent of the world’s population) contract the disease and of these, one hundred million people die. Children are more susceptible to the disease than adults, and in Africa, where ninety percent of the world’s cases occur and where eighty percent of the cases are treated at home, one in twenty children die of the disease before they reach the age of five. Pregnant women are also more vulnerable to disease and in certain parts of Africa, they are four times as likely to contract the disease and only half as likely to survive it.
...at researchers are doing to try to eradicate malaria in underdeveloped countries such as Africa.
Preventing diseases is every countries’ responsibility, whether they are poor or rich. Poor countries lack the knowledge and the money to gain, and expand medical resources. Therefore, many people are not been able to be cured. For wealthy countries, diseases are mutating at incredible speeds. Patients are dying because drug companies do not have enough data to produce vaccines to cure patients. When developed countries help poor countries to cure their people, the developed countries could help underdeveloped countries. Since developed countries can provide greater medical resources to poor countries, people living in the poor countries could be cured. As for the developed countries, they can collect samples from the patients so that the drug companies can produce new vaccines for new diseases. When trying to cure diseases, developed countries and poor countries would have mu...