From Fly Bite to Recovery: A Story About African Sleeping Sickness
In some parts of Africa, a small fly can cause BIG problems. For years, doctors have been puzzling over how to help people who get sick after its bite. Now, they’ve discovered a new, safer medicine, and it could change lives.
Meet the Tsetse Fly and the Parasite
Meet the tsetse fly! It might look small and harmless, but it carries a dangerous secret.
Tsetse flies live only in sub-Saharan Africa. Some of them hide a tiny germ called a protozoan. When an infected fly bites a person, the germ slips into their body and can cause a serious illness called African Sleeping Sickness. It’s called African Sleeping sickness because the disease can make people feel very sleepy.
Here is a close-up view of the germ, or parasite, that causes all the trouble.
There are two types of African sleeping sickness. The first type takes months or even years to make people sick. Most people with African Sleeping Sickness get this type. The second type makes people sick very quickly- within days or weeks, and it is harder to treat.
Discover more about the tsetse fly and how it’s taste for human blood makes people sick below:
The Farmer and the Fly
Imagine a man working on his farm while his wife stays home with their new baby.
He rests in the shade of a tree on the edge of the forest to escape the heat. Suddenly, he feels a sharp sting on his arm. He swats away the little fly and carries on working.
A few days later, his arm is still sore and swollen, and now he has a fever. He feels weaker and weaker, so he decides to see a doctor.
The doctor thinks he may have African Sleeping Sickness from a fly bite. But first, he must do a test to check if the germ has already spread to the farmer’s brain. This test is called a lumbar puncture and can be quite painful.
If the germ has not yet spread, the doctor can give medicine through a needle to make the farmer better. But this means the farmer will have to keep going back to the doctor for treatment over several weeks. That takes him away from the farm, so he can’t grow food for his family, and he can’t spend as much time with his wife and baby.
If the germ has already reached the man’s brain, he will need a different medicine. This one is very old and very toxic. It can help people recover, but it also makes some people dangerously ill.
Thankfully, our farmer gets the right medicine in time. He slowly recovers and can return to his family. But not everyone is so lucky.
Learn more about how sleeping sickness affects the body.
What’s New
Scientists from Africa and Switzerland worked together to test a new pill. They’ve previously seen that this new pill has worked well against the slower type of sleeping sickness, so now they want to see if it helps the fast type, too. They found out that not only did it work well it was much safer than what was used before. It didn’t make people sick. It even treated people whether the germ was in the brain or not. This meant doctors can give it to everyone– without needing to do the painful test first.
And because it was a simple pill, it means people don’t need to keep coming back to the doctors for injections or complicated treatments and can quickly get back to their families.
The Big Picture
This new medicine will help people in Africa get better quickly so they can get back to their families and daily lives. It also means if the disease spreads again, like it has in the past, we will be ready to fight it head-on.
But maybe the most important part is this: it shows we won’t ignore and forget people who are sick just because they live in a faraway country very different from ours. Lots of diseases don’t get much attention. Because they mainly affect poor people in small villages. Is that really fair?
Tonights Dinner Table Discussion
Here’s some ideas to spark a fascinating discussion.
- Why do you think some diseases get more attention (and money) than others?
- How do you think a farmer’s family feels when he can’t work because he’s sick?
- Why might a pill be better than an injection in a village far from a hospital?
- Why might scientists in Africa and Switzerland want to work together on this problem?
Big Family Question:
“Imagine it was up to you to decide which diseases get more money to help find new treatments. How would you decide which ones are the most important? Maybe it’s important who the disease affects? Or how many people? Or how bad the disease is? Or is there something else that’s more important?
Science is awesome. So is asking questions.
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Keep Exploring
Want to see more amazing science helping people around the world? Check out:
- Swarms of tiny robots fighting lung disease
- Robots surgeons bringing bringing doctors to patients, no matter how far away.
Let’s Talk About It
And now we’d love to hear your thoughts. If you could choose, which sickness would you try to help people with first, and why? Tell us your ideas in the comment box below!
