African sleeping sickness virus

Parasites - African Trypanosomiasis also known as Sleeping Sickness. Section Navigation. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Syndicate. Minus Related Pages. To receive email updates about this page, enter your email address: Email Address. What's this? Links with this icon indicate that you are leaving the CDC website. Linking to a non-federal website does not constitute an endorsement by CDC or any of its employees of the sponsors or the information and products presented on the website.

Travelers can protect themselves by preventing tsetse fly bites. If you traveled and feel sick, particularly if you have a fever, talk to a healthcare provider and tell them about your travel. Avoid contact with other people while you are sick. If you need medical care abroad, see Getting Health Care Abroad. Note: Javascript is disabled or is not supported by your browser. For this reason, some items on this page will be unavailable. For more information about this message, please visit this page: About CDC.

Travelers' Health. People from the U. On average, 1 U. The person is typically infected in East African game parks. The only people at risk for African sleeping sickness are those to travel to Africa. The parasites that cause the disease are passed on only by the tsetse fly. The tsetse flies live only in rural areas.

They live in woodland thickets of the savanna and dense vegetation along streams. Visitors to cities and other urban areas are usually not at risk. The disease is found mainly in tropical Africa. The greatest risk of getting it is in:. Tsetse fly bites can be quite painful.

Travelers often recall being bitten. A painful sore often shows up at the site of the bite within a week or so. Each person may have slightly different symptoms.

But symptoms tend to happen within 1 to 4 weeks of infection. At first, they may include fever, skin lesions, rash, swelling, or swollen lymph nodes on the back of the neck. After many weeks, the infection may become meningoencephalitis. This is an infection of the brain and the fluid surrounding the brain and spinal cord. As the illness gets worse, symptoms may include:.

If left untreated, death will occur within several weeks to months. The symptoms of African sleeping sickness may look like other health problems. Always see your healthcare provider for a diagnosis. See a healthcare provider as soon as possible if you think you are infected.

Tests can find the parasite. These tests may include blood samples and a spinal tap lumbar puncture. Your provider may also take a sample of chancre fluid or tissue, or fluid from swollen lymph nodes.

Medicine is available to treat the disease.