What Is African Sleeping Sickness?
2. Trypanosomiasis
African sleeping sickness is caused by a type of parasite known as trypanosomes. These parasites can be picked up by the tsetse fly as it feeds off one host and, once infected, it can infect another host when it has its next meal. There are 3 main species of this parasite but there only two of these infect humans: Trypanosoma brucei gambiense, Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense.
The third type, which does not infect humans, is: Trypanosome brucei brucei. Once they have infected a new host, these parasites can go on to cause the disease known as Trypanosomiasis. This disease is more commonly known as African Sleeping Sickness.
Advertisement
