Sleeping sickness in Uganda: a thin line between two fatal diseases.

نویسندگان

  • Kim Picozzi
  • Eric M Fèvre
  • Martin Odiit
  • Mark Carrington
  • Mark C Eisler
  • Ian Maudlin
  • Susan C Welburn
چکیده

OBJECTIVE To determine, through the use of molecular diagnostic tools, whether the two species of parasite that cause human African trypanosomiasis have become sympatric. DESIGN Blood sampling of all available patients between June 2001 and June 2005 in central Uganda and between July and September 2003 in northwest Uganda and analysis of subcounty sleeping sickness records in Uganda between 1985 and 2005. SETTING Sleeping sickness treatment centres in central and northwest Uganda and in south Sudan. PARTICIPANTS Patients presenting at the treatment centres and diagnosed as having sleeping sickness. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Classification of parasites from patients from each disease focus as either Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense (acute form) or T b gambiense (chronic form). RESULTS Blood from 231 patients with sleeping sickness in central Uganda and from 91 patients with sleeping sickness in northwest Uganda and south Sudan were screened for T b rhodesiense (detection of SRA gene) and T b gambiense (detection of TgsGP gene). All samples from central Uganda were classified as T b rhodesiense, and all samples from northwest Uganda and south Sudan were identified as T b gambiense. CONCLUSIONS The two focuses of human African trypanosomiasis remain discrete, but the area of Uganda affected by the acute form of human sleeping sickness has increased 2.5-fold since 1985, spreading to three new districts within the past five years through movement of infected livestock. Without preventive action targeted at the livestock reservoir of this zoonotic disease, it is likely that the two disease focuses will converge. This will have a major impact on diagnosis and treatment of this neglected disease. Real time monitoring is recommended, using molecular diagnostic tools (at a regional surveillance centre, for example) targeted at both livestock and human patients.

برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

منابع مشابه

In vitro antitrypanosomal activity of African plants used in traditional medicine in Uganda to treat sleeping sickness.

In Uganda, as in many other African countries, herbal treatment of various diseases is still common. In the present study, 9 plant species collected from Tanzania and Uganda and used by traditional healers in southern-eastern Uganda for the treatment of human African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness) were extracted and screened for their in vitro activity against Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiens...

متن کامل

Sleeping sickness in Uganda: revisiting current and historical distributions.

BACKGROUND Sleeping sickness is a parasitic, vector-borne disease, carried by the tsetse fly and prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa. The disease continues to pose a public health burden in Uganda, which experienced a widespread outbreak in 1900-1920, and a more recent outbreak in 1976-1989. The disease continues to spread to uninfected districts. OBJECTIVES This paper compares the spatial distri...

متن کامل

Sleeping Sickness in Uganda *Abstract of a lecture delivered before the Medical Section of the Asiatic Society of Bengal on 9th March 1910. The lecture was fully illustrated by lantern slides.

It is now connected with the coast town of Mombassa by a line of railway through British territory. The Uganda Protectorate lies round the Northern Lake. Until recent years Uganda was practically closed to trade, but with the opening up ('antral Africa it ceased to be so. In this connection Sir Ray Lankester writes + : " The Sleeping Sickness of tropical Africa furnishes an example of one of th...

متن کامل

Spatial Analysis of Sleeping Sickness, Southeastern Uganda, 1970–2003

Sleeping sickness re-emerged in southeastern Uganda in the 1970s and remains a public health problem. It has continued to spread north into new districts, and gaps remain in the understanding of the causes of its spread and distribution. We report the distribution and magnitude of sleeping sickness in southeastern Uganda from 1970 to 2003. Data were collected from records of the Ugandan Ministr...

متن کامل

Trypanososma brucei rhodesiense Sleeping Sickness, Uganda

To the Editor: The past 2 decades have heralded notable success in efforts to control sleeping sickness (human African trypanosomiasis [HAT]) in Africa. HAT is a neglected tropical disease with major public health and economic effects in sub-Saharan Africa, and its effects on livestock productivity and development are considered major constraints to alleviating poverty in this region (1,2). Bec...

متن کامل

ذخیره در منابع من


  با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید

برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

عنوان ژورنال:
  • BMJ

دوره 331 7527  شماره 

صفحات  -

تاریخ انتشار 2005