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Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Shoo fly, don't kill me!

Flies, one of the most annoying animals in this world. Some of these give you a itchy swell in your skin, some just buzz in your ear. However, the African tsetse flies are not just annoying, but also deadly. They carry the disease sleeping sickness. This illness causes major damage to the brain. The tsetse fly is found in 36 countries, and had infected about 70 million people annually. It is hard to think that such a fly can cause this kind of disease. Finally, what would you do to help people with sleeping sickness?

2 comments:

  1. I never knew that it was a fly that caused this sickness. I expected it to be a mosquito or some other bloodsucking insect. This is also the first time I heard of a bloodsucking fly. Apparently the fly carries a protozoan called Trypanosoma brucei gambiense carries the disease. A method that people are using to get rid of the flies are to introduce sterilized males so the females can't reproduce. I would try to find a cure for the sleeping sickness if I were to help with the sickness.

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  2. I never knew that flies caused the sleeping sickness either. I thought it would be some kind of plant that they might have eaten. I always thought that flies were just really annoying. I never knew that flies could kill someone. I found out that the tsetse fly is found in a lot of regions but the sleeping sickness isn't found there. I would also try to find a cure if I were to help the sleep sickness

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