[#ThirdWorldProblems Issue]: Sleeping Sickness

Sleeping sickness is one of those diseases that we don’t hear much about in the US but are a huge concern in many tropical regions. It is common in 49 countries in Africa and infects over 10,000 people a year– in some places it is actually the most common cause of death.10,000 people might not seem like much, but sleeping sickness is a chronic infection and can stay in a patient for months or years without causing any symptoms. And by the time symptoms show up, the person is probably in an advanced stage and his nervous system has already been invaded. The infected person would experience “changes in behavior, confusion, sensory disturbances, poor coordination, and disturbance of the sleep cycle,” according to the World Health Organization. Just like rabies, it eventually causes victims to go mad, fall into a coma, and die.

You can read more here.

A pregnant tsetse fly. Look how repulsive that is

A pregnant tsetse fly– female flies tend to “breast-feed” their young.

Sleeping sickness is almost always transmitted through a bite from the tsetse fly (which also carries many other diseases that kill livestock), so getting rid of this insect would pretty much stop the epidemic. Just this month, researchers at Yale announced that they had finished sequencing the genome of the tsetse fly after ten years of work.

This is a really big deal because the tsetse fly has proved to be very difficult to study so far. Most insects lay hundreds of identical eggs at a time, but this fly gives birth to one larvae at a time and has no more than 10 children during her lifetime. The entire genome project was done with only 15 flies.

One major issue with research on sleeping sickness is lack of funding– because this disease is really only an issue in third-world countries, it gets very little money from governments in Europe, North America, or other well-off regions. Dr. Aksoy, who ran the genome sequencing project at Yale, expalined “Sleeping sickness is a neglected disease, an African disease,” she said, “so we didn’t get [the huge amounts of money that went into research on mosquitoes, which are a threat to Americans].” The sequencing project was almost completely funded by the World Health Organization and various nonprofit groups. Many of the scientists were volunteers.

The researchers have already discovered several genes that can be exploited to either kill the fly (with specially made pesticides) or to make it resistant to the parasite that causes sleeping sickness. Hopefully this new discovery will lead to some treatments for sleeping sickness or weapons against the insect. But more importantly, this might also bring more attention to many other neglected diseases that are wreaking havoc in third-world regions but are not receiving enough support for progress to be made.

 

Sources:

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs259/en/

http://www.who.int/neglected_diseases/diseases/en/

 

10 thoughts on “[#ThirdWorldProblems Issue]: Sleeping Sickness

  1. This sounds really scary! I would not want to get this at all! I know that you mentioned funding problems, are there any groups that are really championing the effort to defeat this disease? What can we as individual do to help out in the effort?

    Also, is this a field that you could go into? Or is it too small of a field for one scientist to dedicate their life to?

  2. Its disappointing that we live in this world where we are able to sequence the genome and make other advanced discoveries in this field, yet are hindered by funding. In Abundance, I remember reading Diamandis predicting an exponential rate of decay for how much it will cost to sequence a genome in the future, to the point that the average consumer can do it in their own home. Also, as a first world country, I believe its our responsibility to help solve third world problems, and wonder why the lives of Americans seem to be worth more than the lives of Africans when it comes to what we decide to research.

  3. I’ve never heard of this disease either. I can understand that it was hard for the Yale researchers to get money for what could be seen as a small disease. Does this disease predominantly show up in a certain age group? I know you mentioned how many people died, but does it have a high fatality rate? Do you think it is our duty as a first world country to aid in these diseases which do not really affect us?

  4. I am very big on Third World Countries, most because i am an active member in UNICEF and United Nations, our biggest struggle are these types of diseases, and not having a cure especially out so far with no resources. One of the problems is lack of funding and actual solutions. So what would you suggest would be the best solution for Third World Countries?

  5. I have heard about sleeping sickness, but like you said, I had no idea how serious it was because we don’t hear a lot about it. You talked about the genome sequencing of the tsetse fly, but how does this help? How are we to catch every fly and then mutate it (if that’s what you’re suggesting)? I’m not sure what the solution is here, except maybe mosquito nets and bug spray. How does knowing the fly’s genome help right now? Furthermore, I think it is interesting how the researchers got very little funding. This kind of thing is not unique to research like this, but to every field of research. For example, the NIH has reduced funding recently, and in response, has been harsher and harsher on grant reviews, and has been giving less and less money. This sort of thing is due to a broken system with too many graduates being trained for too few careers, with those in power refusing to change (and lose profit) and sticking to sure-fire research rather than new or innovative investigations. It is a huge problem in science. Do you have any ideas as to how that kind of thing can be corrected? I have heard about a more diverse education or a set percent of funding allocated to innovative research, but whatever changes come about will take a long time.

  6. Most zoos have some mention of sleeping sickness, but I have not seen much on the tsetse fly or sleeping sickness outside of those places. We still have a lot to learn about most insects, and the varying amount of funding is probably the biggest obstacle, more so than the sophisticated techniques employed to sequence genomes. Recently, Penn State has received over a million dollars from a couple grants to study bees because of their importance in agriculture. Why was sequencing the genome necessary to find ways to kill the fly? Does it not respond to normal insecticides, or is it difficult to provide adequate insecticidal protection in third world countries?

  7. This disease is very intriguing. I never knew such a thing existed. However, after reading about it, I am glad scientists are on the road to ridding the world of sleeping sickness.

    What really struck me in your article, though, was the lack of funding the researchers at Yale endured and that many scientists are volunteers. And while its obvious that they would never get the necessary funding from the American government, it is equally appalling. In the global society that we live in today, one would think that the governments of American and Europe would show a bit more compassion, much like the volunteer scientists.

  8. Wow, I didn’t even know this disease existed. Why is it called the Sleeping Sickness? Is it because people enter into comas? I think it’s great that research is being done on these areas, specifically on the tsetse fly. I remember reading about this insect before and its impact on agriculture in sub-saharan African during my AP Environmental Science Class. By solving its genome, we may be able to help not only individual human beings but society as a whole. Do you think it is the responsibility of first-world nations to take the lead in issues such as this one that don’t necessarily concern them?

  9. I had never hear of sleeping sickness before this, so thank you for informing me. What a great discovery! I think things like this are what makes science beautiful. Scientists that come together to cure diseases, not for the money (because obviously there wasn’t any). I hope they can find some ways to fight sleeping sickness soon, and then can find money to get the cure to these poor countries. Is sequencing the entire genome a common practice? Is this how they begin to find cures for things? It sounds like a slow process, and I wonder if it could be sped up at all.

  10. That is an interesting disease. It seems to me, though I am not the authority on disease, that many deaths in 3rd world countries are caused by insects. It seems a host of deadly diseases are just flying around the air, and that is pretty scary. I would like to see more funding put toward fighting illnesses such as this. With the genome of the fly sequenced, solutions should be more possible than ever.

Leave a Reply