BSC 310 Lecture Notes - Lecture 43: Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, Meningococcal Disease, Lepromatous Leprosy
Document Summary
Sleeping sickness is also known astrypanosomiasis because the etiologic agent is a protozoan belonging to the genustrypanosoma. The species responsible for african sleeping sickness is t. brucei , which is transmitted by tsetse flies and infects the blood of patients. Headache, lassitude, tremors, and uncoordinated movements characterize infection of the nervous system. Blood smears reveal the trypanosomes, and drug therapy is available with pentamidine and suramin. The south american form of sleeping sickness is also known as chagas" disease. the etiologic agent is t. cruzi. The organisms affect the nervous system of patients as well as the heart tissue. Often they destroy the nerve ganglia of the heart and cause severe heart disease. Other diseases of the nervous system are believed due to viruses that have not yet been isolated. An example is kuru, a slow-developing disease observed in. Kuru is called a slow virus disease because the symptoms, which include nervous tremors, take over a year to appear.
