title: Duration of symptoms and case fatality of sleeping sickness caused by Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense in Tororo, Uganda.
abstract: Although there have been recent molecular biological studies for evidence of possible changes in trypanosome biochemistry, such studies are not yet complemented by parallel clinical studies to determine the possible implications to the sleeping sickness patient. The study of the duration of symptoms and the case fatality of T. b. rhodesiense showed that the disease progressed to the stage of central nervous system involvement between three weeks to two months of infection. Most (> 80%) deaths occurred within six months of illness. The case fatality rate of treated sleeping sickness patients was 6% of which the rate in the late-stage of sleeping sickness was more than two and a half times that in the early stage. The incidence of melarsoprol encephalopathy was 2.5% and case fatality due to this condition was 1.0% and similar to previous findings. Thus it appears the virulence of T. b. rhodesiense circulating in south east Uganda has not changed during the past decades.
authors.affiliation: Sleeping Sickness Programme, Livestock Health Research Institute, Tororo, Uganda.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Odiit
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Kansiime
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Enyaru
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D018450:Disease Progression; D004660:Encephalitis / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000401:mortality; D017052:Hospital Mortality / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D012306:Risk; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013997:Time Factors; D014344:Trypanocidal Agents / Q000009:adverse effects; D016833:Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense; D014353:Trypanosomiasis, African / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000401:mortality* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D014454:Uganda
chemical_list: D014344:Trypanocidal Agents