Sleeping sickness

Alternative Names

African trypanosomiasis

Symptoms

Gambiense infections lead to drowsiness during the day, but insomnia at night. Sleep becomes uncontrollable as the disease gets worse, and eventually leads to coma .

General symptoms include:

Anxiety
Drowsiness
Fever
Headache
Increased sleepiness
Insomnia at night
Mood changes
Sweating
Swollen lymph nodes all over the body
Swollen, red, painful nodule at site of fly bite
Uncontrollable urge to sleep

Signs and tests

A physical examination may show signs of meningoencephalitis (inflammation of the brain and its covering, the meninges).

Tests include the following:

Albumin levels
Blood smear
Cerebrospinal fluid tests
Complete blood count (CBC)
Globulin levels
Lymph node aspiration

Most antibody and antigen test are not very helpful because they can't distinguish between current and previous infection. Specific IgM levels in the cerebrospinal fluid may be helpful, however.

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Sleeping sickness

Review Date: 12/03/2008
Reviewed By: David C. Dugdale, III, MD, Professor of Medicine, Division of General Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine; Jatin M. Vyas, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor in Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Assistant in Medicine, Division of Infectious Disease, Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, A.D.A.M., Inc.

A.D.A.M., Inc. is accredited by URAC, also known as the American Accreditation HealthCare Commission (www.urac.org).