The Epidemilogy of Rhosesiense Sleeping Sickness, with Reference to its History

Abstract

The epidemiology of Rhodesians sleeping sickness is not yet fully understood, although it has been studied for more than 60 years. The paper point out some obstacle which hinder an overall evaluation of the sleeping sickness problem, special attention is rapid to the fluctuating male-female child ratios of sleeping sickness patients and, to game movements and climatic stresses at the edge of a flybelt. The interpretation of male female ratio leads to the confirmation of the importance of man fly man cycles of trypanosomes during epidemic Rhodesian outbreaks and of their insignificant role in the purely endemic situation deep inside the flybelt. The subacute course of the disease in sleeping sickness patients living in the southern and eastern G. morsitans flybelts is considered to be the result of a selection by man-infective trypasomes of people with a more efficient immune response.