African Sleeping Sickness
African sleeping sickness – Sleeping sickness or human African trypanosomiasis is a parasitic disease of people and animals caused by protozoa and transmitted by the tsetse fly.
Sleeping sickness’s symptoms begin with fever, headaches and joint pains after the parasites enter through both the blood and lymph systems.
The district information officer, Musopiri Suwet, said Kwera, Kangai and Dokolo sub-counties were affected with the disease. The World Health Organisation has released sh71m to help the district train health officials to contain the tsetse fly, spray of animals and follow up. A total of 18 people in Dokolo district have died of African sleeping sickness.
The director of health services, Dr. Samuel Ojok, said the latest death occurred last week and that 11 other people were still admitted and undergoing treatment at Dokolo Health Centre IV.
“The cases ( African sleeping sickness) have become common and we are asking people to come for testing in case anyone feels feverish,” Ojok told journalists at the health centre on Monday.
Dr. Samuel Ojok said the disease spread to the district in 2004 following the arrival of infected animals from the Busoga region for sale by businessmen. Because the disease presented itself in a confusing form, patients diagnosed with malaria were also being tested for the virus. Many people were unaware of the symptoms and that it had resulted into late reporting of the disease. The district has so far recorded 120 cases about this African sleeping sickness.
June 22nd, 2009 at 6:33 am
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