title: [House effect and family contamination in sleeping sickness: interpretative trial of the phenomenon. Study of 3 Congolese foci].
abstract: A review is given of the different hypotheses concerning the concentration of trypanosomiasis cases at the house or family level: 1. Mechanical transmission by haematophagous insects. 2. Interrupted feeding of a tsetse fly with cyclic infection on different people. 3. Family biological factor. These hypotheses are used as a introduction to an epidemiological field study in three congolese foci. Whereas their distribution among village districts is random, patients are significantly aggregated at the house and/or family level. This distribution may be partly explained by the behaviour of members of the family and community cells, associated with amplifying factors, the most probable being interrupted feeding of a tsetse fly with cyclic infection. In some foci other possibilities can be considered, such as mechanical transmission by Aedes or hereditary population factors. This spatial and/or familial concentration of cases is an important epidemiological property of sleeping sickness, the practical implication of which is the exhaustive survey of the human environment of cases.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire d'Entomologie Médicale et de Parasitologie. Centre ORSTOM, Brazzaville, Congo.
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Gouteux
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Noireau
authors.forename: J R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Malonga
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Frezil
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003223:Congo; D004198:Disease Susceptibility; D006970:Disorders of Excessive Somnolence / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics / Q000635:transmission*; D004463:Ecology; D006801:Humans; D012893:Sleep Wake Disorders / Q000635:transmission*; D014353:Trypanosomiasis, African / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics / Q000635:transmission*
vernacular_title: "Effet de case" et "contamination familiale" dans la maladie du sommeil: essai d'interprétation du phénomène. Exemple de trois foyers congolais.