A new public health problem arises from animal trypanosomes that afflict human by a disease called atypical human trypanosomiasis. Although humans have an innate protection against most Trypanosoma species, nineteen cases of atypical human trypanosomiasis caused by the animal trypanosome as T. b. brucei, T. vivax, T. congolense, T. evansi and T. lewisi have been recorded. Some of theserecorded ...

No new effective drugs for trypanosomiasis, human or animal, have been brought into field use for 20 years; increased drug development costs, the generally small drug budgets of developing countries and widespread evolution of drug resistance are primary causes. The topics covered briefly here deal with data accumulated since an earlier review (WILLIAMSON, 1970). A more extended account will be...

9 health threat in sub-Saharan Africa, spreads among people bitten by the tsetse fly and is fatal unless treated. Because early-stage infection produces few symptoms, it is thought that only 10 percent of patients with the disease are accurately diagnosed. FIND and the World Health Organization will collaborate in seeking to identify, test and implement diagnostics that will increase the likeli...

Chagas disease, also known as American trypanosomiasis, is a chronic infection caused by Trypanosoma cruzi, a protozoan parasite. It is transmitted to human beings mainly through the feces of infected triatomine bugs. The disease affects an estimated 8 to 10 million people in the Americas, putting them at risk of developing life-threatening cardiac and gastrointestinal complications. This artic...

Human African trypanosomiasis is a threat to millions of people living in sub-Saharan countries and is fatal unless treated. At present, the serological and parasitological tests used in the field for diagnosis of sleeping sickness have low specificity and sensitivity. There is clearly an urgent need for accurate tools for both diagnosis and staging of the disease. The Foundation for Innovative...

Human African trypanosomiasis (HAT) is classified in the category of the most neglected tropical diseases. In man, the disease is caused by two tsetse (Glossina spp.)-transmitted trypanosome subspecies: Trypanosoma brucei gambiense, which is responsible for the chronic form of HAT in West and Central Africa, and T. b. rhodesiense, which causes acute disease in eastern and southern Africa. Afric...

Programmes are under way to free Africa of the disease either by developing new drugs and prophylactics or by massive control and eradication of the tsetse fly. The increasing concern that trypanosomiasis is preventing social and economic development in many countries has led to the Joint FAO/WHO Tsetse and Trypanosomiasis Control Programme. This was officially launched in November 1974. It is ...

There is an urgent need for new drugs for the chemotherapy of human African trypanosomiasis, Chagas disease and leishmaniasis. Progress has been made in the identification and characterization of novel drug targets for rational chemotherapy and inhibitors of trypanosomatid glycosomal enzymes, trypanothione reductase, ornithine decarboxylase, S-adenosylmethionine decarboxylase, cysteine protease...