Sleeping sickness is re-emerging

doi:10.1136/bmj.325.7357.0/d

Sleeping sickness is re-emerging

Human African trypanosomiasis, or sleeping sickness, is a re-emerging public health problem in many parts of rural Africa.The protozoan Trypanosoma brucei is transmitted through the biteof a tetse fly, and the clinical signs of the first stages ofthe disease include fever, lymphadenopathy, and hepatomegaly.The second stage of the disease results in chronic encephalopathy,and patients eventually enter a terminal somnolent state, whichgives the disease its name. Stich and colleagues (p 203) reviewthe condition and say that the new epidemic can be controlledif the political will is there.