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Home :: Family Health :: Sleeping Sickness Sleeping Sickness - Sleeping Sickness symptom, treatment, causes
Sleeping Sickness is an infectious disease of tropical Africa caused by parasitic protozoa (single-celled animals) of the genus Trypanosoma (hence its other name, trypanosomiasis). Sleeping sickness does not occur in Australia but is occasionally found in travellers returning from affected areas. The parasite is spread from animals to humans and between people by the bite of the tsetse fly. A painful nodule develops at the bite site. The protozoa multiply and are spread throughout the body by the lymphatic circulation and the blood-stream, causing damage mainly in the lymph glands, heart and brain. Depending on the species of try panosoma, the disease may progress quickly or slowly over months or years. Early symptoms include fever, malaise, swollen lymph glands and skin eruptions. CARDIOMY-OPATHY may lead to HEART FAILURE. The brain is affected last, and confusion and headache progress to tremors, seizures, extreme tiredness, coma and death. Diagnosis is by finding the parasites in blood lymph glands or cerebrospinal fluid. Drug treatment before brain damage has occurred usually produces a complete cure. Travellers in tropical Africa should protect themselves against insect bites, especially when in the bush.
Sleeping sickness (also called trypanosomiasis) is an infection caused by Trypanosoma protozoa; it is passed to humans through the bite of the tsetse fly. the disease is endemic in certain regions of Sub-Saharan Africa , covering about 36 countries and 60 million people are at risk.Nearly eliminated in the 1960s, HAT has been making a comeback of epidemic proportions due to war, population movements, and the collapse of health systems over the past two decades. The World Health Organization estimates that 300,000 people are currently infected with HAT and that over 60,000 people die from it every year, although many more infections and deaths go unreported. The drugs currently in use to treat HAT are old, toxic or difficult to use. A donation program was agreed between WHO and pharmaceutical producers in 2001 securing the supply of existing medicines to treat HAT until 2006. But ensuring adequate resources for research and development for new medicines against this devastating disease is vital if we are to effectively treat patients and control the disease in the future.
Symptoms of Sleeping Sickness
Some common Symptoms of Sleeping Sickness :
- Increased sleepiness.
- Fever.
- Mood changes.
- Anxiety.
- Sweating.
- Swollen lymph nodes all over the body.
- Insomnia at night.
- Headache.
- Drowsiness.
- Uncontrollable urge to sleep.
Treatment of Sleeping Sickness
- Suramin (Antrypol) .
- Melarsoprol.
- Pentamidine .
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