Marco
Grrrrrrr!
- Messages
- 2,386
- Location
- Near Cognac, France
This is a long but interesting article.
Previous attempts to totally eradicate sleeping sickness have repeatedly failed for reasons which have baffled scientists.
It turns out they may have been looking in the wrong place in assuming that the disease is (solely) blood borne and is down to the particular eating habits of the tsetse fly vector. Unlike mosquitoes that suck blood via a syringe like 'spike', the tsetse fly munches through skin, blood and whatever.
Scientists have now shown that the parasite can be carried on the skin.
The implications for controlling the disease are that being seronegative by a blood test doesn't mean you're not infected.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/l...a-why-not-sleeping-sickness-too-a8041491.html
Previous attempts to totally eradicate sleeping sickness have repeatedly failed for reasons which have baffled scientists.
It turns out they may have been looking in the wrong place in assuming that the disease is (solely) blood borne and is down to the particular eating habits of the tsetse fly vector. Unlike mosquitoes that suck blood via a syringe like 'spike', the tsetse fly munches through skin, blood and whatever.
Scientists have now shown that the parasite can be carried on the skin.
The implications for controlling the disease are that being seronegative by a blood test doesn't mean you're not infected.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/l...a-why-not-sleeping-sickness-too-a8041491.html