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Trypanosomiasis

Chagas disease

• Trypanosoma cruzi
• S. America
• Spread by "Kissing bugs"
  • Infection shed in faeces and rubbed into mucous membranes, cuts
• Causes late cardiomegaly & "mega" bowel disorders

Diagnosis

• Blood film
• Xenodiagnosis
• Serology

Treatment

• limited

Sleeping sickness

• Trypansoma brucie gambiense or Rhodesiense
• Rhodesiense better adapted to humans
• Spread by tsetse flies

Course

• After bite spreads early through blood
• Intermittent fever
• Lymphadenopathy
• Later behaviour changes
• Sleepiness
• Coma

Diagnosis

• Microscopy of blood, bone marrow, CSF
• Serology

Treatment

• Suramin – early stages
• Melarsoprol (an arsenical so v. dangerous)