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Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Sleep or death?

Did you know that in Africa almost 60 million people are at risk for the sleeping sickness. Sleeping sickness is caused by a parasite called Trypanosom. They travel through the African tsetse fly. When the fly bites a person, then the parasite flows into the persons bloodstream, similarly to malaria. What better why to find a host than to travel through a blood sucking fly? Its like a free ride into the bloodstream. After that the Trypanosom attacks the red blood cells which carry the sugars/energy you need making you sleepy hence the name sleeping sickness. In Addition there is no known cure for this disease and very few people are diagnosed with this disease. What do you think would have happened if people had managed to find a cure for the sleeping sickness?
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2 comments:

  1. AnonymousFebruary 12, 2014 at 8:14 PM

    When I first heard about the bad things happening in Africa, I swore on my life that, I would never visit or live there. But hearing about those tsetse flies has got me even more freaked out. I mean, being bitten by a freakishly huge fly must hurt, but having the chance of death along with it? No way! I feel really sorry for the people who live there and want to help out by donating money and supplies to help fight the disease. I will send someone to give it to them, but no way, no how am I ever going in person!

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  2. AnonymousFebruary 15, 2014 at 4:03 PM

    If people were able to find a cure to sleeping sickness, I would be really for Africa. I also think that Africa and it's residents would be really grateful and happy. Did you know that in the 1990's, they found a treatment that helped a little bit with the disease? It didn't completely stop the number of people that got the disease, but it did reduce it. What would you do if you got the sleeping sickness?

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