A disease has an interesting impact on humanity. It can take loved ones from us or affect livelihoods of families, especially in countries where poverty is prevalent. So we should celebrate the fact that African sleeping sickness should be taken off the World Health Organization's list of public health problems by the year 2022. However, the disease is intriguing and beneficial for someone to know about before traveling to an African where the disease occurs.
There are two types of the disease. In East Africa the sleeping sickness is Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense, and in West Africa they have the form which comes from the species Trypanosoma brucei gambiense. T. b. gambiense is most infectious in humans and is involved in 98 percent of the cases that show symptoms of sleeping sickness. It can be found in 24 West African states, the highest number of which are observed in Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, and Zambia.
The sad part about the disease is that it affects remote rural areas, making it more difficult to assess the severity of the disease and to get aid to those in need. Human disturbances (war, displacement of people, and poverty) allow for an increase in the transmission of the disease. In West Africa the tsetse flies live in vegetation near streams, and that causes issues for villagers living near a stream inhabited by the fly or for children who play in the water.
Depending on the stage of the disease patients are in when they are diagnosed, they receive a variety of drugs:
East Stage 1: Suramin
East Stage 2: Melarsoprol
West Stage 1: Pentamidine isethionate or suramin
West Stage 2: Melarsoprol or eflornithine
The World Health Organization has seen a drop of 73 percent in the number of cases reported from 2000 to 2012. Thankfully, the drop may be due in part to the advocacy, screens, and availability of drugs. The only problem is that some cases may not be reported at all due to people not being diagnosed or having reduced medical accessibility. Regardless, this is a significant and hopeful decrease of the prevalence of the disease.
Anyone, especially college students studying abroad, traveling to a new country should be aware of the pathogens, what carries them, and how they are transmitted.
