Question

African Illness: A Case of Parasites?

Answer 1

African illness- A case of parasite

African illness is based on the case of one Brtisih, Robert Bragg who returned from a two week Safari in central Africa. He reported to a hospital in the United Kingdom complaining of general discomfort, muscle pain, fever , headache , vomiting and diarrhea. He complained that during the day he felt weak and not able to sleep well in night. Doctors suspected Robert’s symptoms were caused by an infection he developed while on safari.The case is appropriate for courses in introductory biology, immunology, microbiology, parasitology, public health, tropical diseases, and African studies
Diagnosis
Africa is the area of the world where the Anopheles mosquitoes that transmit malaria and his symptoms matched those generally expected of people with malaria, but to confirm the diagnosis doctors collected a blood sample from Robert to analyze for the presence of the Plasmodium falciparum parasites that cause the disease. But found out Trypanosoma brucei parasites in it. It is a protozoan parasite. It is not closely related to Plasmodium falciparum genetically, but there are many similarities in the way it infects people and in the symptoms it causes. The disease caused by Trypanosoma brucei, called African trypanosomiasis, is also known as African sleeping sickness. It cause severe side effects, including joint pain, severe weakness, light sensitivity and even loss of consciousness. Severe infection causes effects in CNS of the patients but his condition is not reached to that point till now.
Treatment  
Actually, the human immune system is somewhat capable of killing Trypanosoma brucei and lowering the parasitemia however, the parasite has adapted a way to a continually evade the immune system so that it can continue replicating. African trypanosomes to become successful extracellular parasites and survive in the bloodstream of their human hosts, they had evolved a mechanism to evade the host’s immune response. They are covered by a protective coat containing proteins called variant surface glycoprotein. Although VSG helps protect the parasite, it’s also an antigen, which means it triggers the immune system to respond by making antibodies against it, which can lead to the destruction of the parasite. Four drugs are available in the market for the treatment of this disease.
Public Health Campaign
In addition to the extensive toll on human life, African trypanosomes also cause a widespread and devastating disease in livestock cattle called Nagana. Nagana causes three million cattle deaths per year, which amount to a loss of $4 billion a year to struggling African economies. Because there is no effective vaccine against African trypanosomes, the most effective way to prevent the spread of the disease is through multi-faceted public health campaigns directed at eliminating parasite contact through other means