Sleeping Sickness

Sleeping sickness or African trypanosomiasis is a parasitic disease in humans. Caused by trypanosome protozoa and transmitted by the tsetse fly, the disease is endemic in certain regions of sub-Saharan Africa, covering about 36 countries and 60 million people. It is estimated that 300,000-500,000 people are infected, and about 40,000 die every year. Three major epidemics have occurred in the past hundred years, in 1896-1906, 1920, and 1970.

Symptoms begin with fever, headaches, and joint pains. If untreated, the disease slowly overcomes the defences of the infected person, and symptoms spread to anaemia, endocrine problems, and cardiovascular and kidney disorders. The disease then enters a neurological phase when the parasite passes through the blood-brain barrier. The symptoms of the second phase is what gives the disease its name: besides confusion and reduced coordination, the sleep cycle is disturbed with bouts of lethargy punctuated with manic periods progressing to daytime somnolence and nighttime insomnia. Without treatment, the disease is fatal, with progressive mental deterioration leading to coma and death. Damage caused in the neurological phase can be irreversible.

The disease is found in two forms, depending on the parasite, either Trypanosoma brucei gambiense or Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense. T. b. gambiense is found in central and western Africa; it causes a chronic condition that can extend in a passive phase for months or years before symptoms emerge. T. b. rhodesiense is found in southern and eastern Africa; its infection emerges in a few weeks and is more virulent and faster developing.

The primary condition is treated with either suramine (T. b. rhodesiense) or pentamidine (T. b. gambiense). Advanced cases can be treated with melarsoprol or eflornithine. All these drugs, especially melarsoprol, have many undesirable side-effects, and the treatment regime is often difficult to enforce.

The condition has been present in Africa from at least the 14th century. The causative agent and the vector were not identified until 1902-1903, and the differentiation between protozoa was not made until 1910. An arsenic based drug, atoxyl, was the first effective drug, developed by Paul Ehrlich and Kiyoshi Shiga, from trypan red in 1906. After patients became blind due to incorrect dosages of atoxyl, the organo-arsenical melarsoprol (Arsobal) was developed in the 1940s. It was effective, but 3-10% of those injected had reactive encephalopathy (convulsions, progressive coma, or psychotic reactions), and 10-70% died; it could cause brain damage in those that survived the encephalopathy. Treatment of the primary condition began in the 1920s with suramine. Eflornithine (difluoromethylornithine (DFMO)), the most modern treatment, was developed in the 1970s by Albert Sjoerdsmanot and underwent clinical trials in the 1980s. It was approved by the FDA in 1990; production halted in 1999 but was revived by Aventis.

Modern Usage: Sleeping Sickness

Commercial Usage: Sleeping Sickness

Domain	Title
Books	Progress in Human African Trypanosomiasis, Sleeping Sickness (reference) The Colonial Disease : A Social History of Sleeping Sickness in Northern Zaire, 1900-1940 (reference) (more book examples)

Music	Sleeping Sickness (reference) (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Photo Album: Sleeping Sickness

Thumbnail	Description & Credit	Thumbnail	Description & Credit
	A patient being treated in a Sudanese hospital for sleeping sickness. / WHO p. Credit: National Library of Medicine; photo by D. Henrioud..		Victims of sleeping sickness in an institution in the French Cameroons. / WHO p. Credit: National Library of Medicine; photo by Pierre Pittet..
	The ravages of sleeping sickness ... / WHO photo. Credit: National Library of Medicine.		Seems to be a case of sleeping sickness. Credit: Library of Congress.
	Colonial empire: African dresser giving bare-breasted girl, who was found to be infected with sleeping sickness, an injection. Credit: Library of Congress.
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits.

Non-Fiction Usage: Sleeping Sickness

Subject	Topic	Quote
Health		There are two types of African trypanosomiasis, also called sleeping sickness, named for the areas in Africa in which they are found. (references)
		Fever, severe headaches, irritability, extreme fatigue, swollen lymph nodes, and aching muscles and joints are common symptoms of sleeping sickness. (references)
		Occasionally, 1-2 weeks after the tsetse fly bite, a red sore, also called a chancre (SHAN-ker) appears at the site of the infective bite. Several weeks to months later, other symptoms of sleeping sickness occur. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

Expression: Sleeping Sickness

Frequency of Internet Keywords: Sleeping Sickness

Modern Translation: Sleeping Sickness

Language		Translations for "sleeping sickness"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		sëmundje e gjumit. (various references)

Arabic		‏مرض النوم. (various references)

Bulgarian		сънна болест. (various references)

Czech		spavá nemoc. (various references)

Danish		afrikansk trypanosis (African lethargy, African sleeping sickness, african trypanosomiasis, Congo trypanosomiasis). (various references)

Dutch		afrikaanse slaapziekte (African lethargy, African sleeping sickness, african trypanosomiasis, Congo trypanosomiasis). (various references)

French		trypanosomiase africaine (African sleeping sickness), maladie du sommeil. (various references)

German		Schlafkrankheit. (various references)

Greek		τρυπανοσωμίαση (trypanosomiasis, trypanosomosis). (various references)

Hungarian		álmatlanság (insomnia, sleeplessness, wakefulness). (various references)

Italian		malattia del sonno (African lethargy, African sleeping sickness, african trypanosomiasis, Congo trypanosomiasis). (various references)

Japanese Kanji		� り病 , トリパノソーマ症 (toluene, torque, torque converter, tribune, trilemma, trill, trim, trimmer, trimming, triple, triple crown, triple jump, triple play, trivia, trivialism, trooper, truffle, trypanosoma, trypanosomiasis, Turkey, turquoise). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		トリパノソーマしょう (trypanosomiasis), ねむりびょう. (various references)

Manx		gorley cadlee (lethargy, narcolepsy). (various references)

Pig Latin		eepingslay icknesssay

Portuguese		doença do sono. (various references)

Romanian		boala somnului. (various references)

Russian		сонная болезнь. (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		bolest spavanja. (various references)

Spanish		tripanosomiasis africana (African lethargy, African sleeping sickness, african trypanosomiasis, Congo trypanosomiasis). (various references)

Swedish		sömnsjuka. (various references)

Turkish		uyku hastalığı. (various references)

Ukrainian		сонна хвороба. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Anagrams: Sleeping Sickness

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "c-e-e-e-g-i-i-k-l-n-n-p-s-s-s-s"
	-4 letters: kinglinesses, sicklinesses, singlenesses, slinkinesses.
	-5 letters: silkinesses, slicknesses, spicinesses, spikinesses, spininesses.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.

Alternative Orthography: Sleeping Sickness

Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)

53 6C 65 65 70 69 6E 67 53 69 63 6B 6E 65 73 73

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)

Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)

01010011 01101100 01100101 01100101 01110000 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01010011 01101001 01100011 01101011 01101110 01100101 01110011 01110011

HTML Code (1990) (references)

&#83 &#108 &#101 &#101 &#112 &#105 &#110 &#103 &#32 &#83 &#105 &#99 &#107 &#110 &#101 &#115 &#115

ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)

0053 006C 0065 0065 0070 0069 006E 0067 0053 0069 0063 006B 006E 0065 0073 0073

Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)

Domain	Definition
Food & Agriculture	Tsetse-borne trypanosomiasis, caused by subspecies of Trypanosoma brucei(namely T. b. gambiense and T. b. rhodesiense, in West and East Africa respectively). Source: European Union. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Domain	Usage
Movie/TV Titles	Sleeping Sickness (1925)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Expression	Frequency per Day
sleeping sickness	42
african sleeping sickness	28
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Expression using "sleeping sickness": African sleeping sickness. Additional references.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Sleeping Sickness

Definition: Sleeping Sickness