A wake-up call about Sleeping Sickness

Kennedy, P. G. E. (2003) A wake-up call about Sleeping Sickness. Cerebrum, 5, pp. 39-54.

Abstract

Human African trypanosomiasis may not be known as a brain disease, but in fact the irresistible sleep that overcomes victims in its final stages results from the disease’s wholesale assault on the brain and nervous system. And without treatment, these victims will never awaken from their fatal sleep. Today, the tsetse fly that spreads sleeping sickness makes one third of a gigantic continent virtually unininhabitable for farmers and livestock, crippling Africa’s economic potential. An English neurologist with 15 years of experience in the field warns that a world taken by surprise at the appearance of West Nile virus, SARS, and the recent epidemic of malaria among U.S. soldiers sent to Liberia may next come face to face with Africa ’s age-old plague.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Kennedy, Professor Peter
• Authors: Kennedy, P. G. E.
• College/School: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Infection & Immunity
• Journal Name: Cerebrum
• Publisher: Dana Press
• ISSN: 1524-6205
• ISSN (Online): 1943-3859