KILLER DISEASES | How Sleeping Sickness Affects the Body

FIRST PUBLISHED 6 July 2016

By biting an infected person, the tsetse fly carries the parasites and transmits them when biting someone else. The parasites enter the lymphatic system and then the blood stream. Without treatment sleeping sickness is usually fatal: the parasites enter the brain impacting the nervous system and leading to disruptive sleep cycles, confusion, coma, and death.

Watch all of the Killer Diseases – Sleeping Sickness videos:
History:    • KILLER DISEASES | A History of Sleepi...  
Geography:    • KILLER DISEASES | Sleeping Sickness A...  
Body:    • KILLER DISEASES | How Sleeping Sickne...  
Treatment:    • KILLER DISEASES | Sleeping Sickness T...  
Future:    • KILLER DISEASES | Sleeping Sickness i...  

Learn more about DNDi's work to develop better treatments for Sleeping Sickness: https://www.dndi.org/diseases-project...

This video is part of the "Killer Diseases" series produced by MSF France, Allodocteurs, Réseau Canopé, Fondation Mérieux, universcience, Inserm, Institut Pasteur, and DNDi. Supported by les Investissements d’avenir.