Lexic.us

Definition of Sleeping sickness

1. Noun. An encephalitis that was epidemic between 1915 and 1926; symptoms include paralysis of the extrinsic eye muscle and extreme muscular weakness.

Definition of Sleeping sickness

1. Noun. (pathology) An endemic infectious disease of humans and animals in tropical Africa, caused by a parasitic trypanosome, transmitted by the tsetse fly and characterized by fever, severe headache, joint pains and lymph node swelling in the early stages, followed by a neurological phase of extreme weakness, sleepiness, and deep coma leading to death. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Medical Definition of Sleeping sickness

1. Genus of Protozoa that causes serious infections in humans and domestic animals. African trypanosomes, of the brucei group, are carried by Tsetse flies and, when they enter the bloodstream of the mammalian host go through a complex series of stages. Perhaps the most interesting feature is that there are recurrent bouts of parasitaemia as the parasite alters its surface antigens to evade the immune response of the host (see antigenic variation). The repertoire of antigenic variation is considerable. The s.American trypanosomes (of which T. Cruzi is the best known) are carried by reduviid bugs and cause a chronic and incurable disease. Other interesting features of trypansomes are the kinetoplast DNA and glycosomes (organelles containing enzymes of the glycolytic chain). This entry appears with permission from the Dictionary of Cell and Molecular Biology (11 Mar 2008)

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Literary usage of Sleeping sickness

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. International Catalogue of Scientific Literature by Royal Society (Great Britain) (1906)
"27 of sleeping-sickness. J. trop. Med.. London, 6, 1903, 1167-171, 1 pi. and 2 text-figs.). [040:; 0407 0419 0060]. Researches on the etiology 28 Die ..."

2. The Quarterly Review by William Gifford, John Taylor Coleridge, John Gibson Lockhart, Whitwell Elwin, William Macpherson, William Smith, John Murray, George Walter Prothero, Rowland Edmund Prothero Ernle (1904)
"Preliminary Xotes on sleeping sickness. By R. U Moffat, Principal Medical Officer, ... Reports of the Sleeping-sickness Commission of the Royal Society. ..."

3. Manual of Bacteriology by Robert Muir, James Ritchie (1913)
"The organisms were not demonstrable in the cerebro-spinal fluid of patients dying of other diseases in the sleeping sickness area. On the other hand, ..."

4. The Parliamentary Debates by Great Britain Parliament (1908)
"National sleeping sickness Bureau- *MR. REES : I beg to ask the Undersecretary of State tor the Colonies whether the Government has decided to establish a ..."

5. The Parliamentary Debates by Great Britain Parliament (1908)
"sleeping sickness in Horses. MR. MITCHELL-THOMSON (Lanarkshire, NW) : I beg to ask the Undersecretary of State for the Colonies whether his attention has ..."

6. The Parliamentary Debates by Great Britain Parliament (1906)
"sleeping sickness Cure. *MR. REES : (Montgomery Boroughs) : I beg to ask the Undor-Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he is aware that Sir Patrick ..."

7. Tropical Diseases: A Manual of the Diseases of Warm Climates by Patrick Manson (1900)
"... Mott showed that the essential lesion in sleeping sickness is an extensive meningo-encephalitis. Sections of the brain in both cases, although naked- ..."

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