Imagine you just returned from a safari in Africa. You soon develop a fever, swollen lymph nodes, and over time you begin to have trouble sleeping. Eventually you can't stay awake during the day or sleep at night, you start to lose coordination, and if left untreated, you could go into a coma and die within six months. While you were in Africa, you contracted African trypanosomiasis, better known as sleeping sickness. You contracted this disease from one of the smallest animals you encountered on your safari, the tsetse fly. The tsetse fly carries a parasite known as trypanosoma brucei that causes sleeping sickness. The tsetse fly helped spread this disease throughout sub-Saharan Africa, causing epidemics that have devastated populations since the 14th century. Symptoms of the disease begin to appear soon after being bitten. An ulcer forms around the site where the person was bitten and the parasite soon enters the lymphatic system. The immune response it triggers in the immune system causes the lymph nodes to swell especially on the neck. Severe swelling of the lymph nodes on the dorsal side of the neck is known as Winterbottom's sign and is a telltale sign of sleeping sickness. The parasite soon finds its way into the bloodstream after invading the lymphatic system. From the bloodstream, the parasite is free to travel and damage any organ and cause damage throughout the body. The parasite targets smooth and skeletal muscles and is often fatal due to the damage it causes to the heart muscle. The disease begins to wreak havoc on the nervous system when the parasite enters the brain and constitutes stage II trypanosomiasis. The person's sleep cycles are disrupted and fatigue, insomnia and confusion... are the focus of the card... to evade detection by the immune system. Although it rarely reaches the United States, sleeping sickness has a devastating effect in parts of Africa and is just one of many diseases threatening Africans. Hopefully, in the near future, scientists will be able to learn even more about this disease and, more importantly, how to eradicate it completely. Works Cited1. http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/228613-overview2. http://pathmicro.med.sc.edu/lecture/trypanosomiasis.htm3. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs259/en/4. http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=4&hid=122&sid=3412f781-1a76-4535-a9e0-63b2423c1626%40sessionmgr15&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=cmedm&AN=21911566 5. http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=4&hid=17&sid=3412f781-1a76-4535-a9e0-63b2423c1626%40sessionmgr15&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=cmedm&AN=21376044