sleeping sickness

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sleeping sickness Popular name of two diseases. Trypanosomiasis is a disease of tropical Africa caused by a parasite transmitted by the tsetse fly. It is characterized by fever, headache, joint pains, and anaemia. Ultimately, it may affect the brain and spinal cord, leading to profound lethargy and sometimes death. Encephalitis lethargica is a rare, viral disease of the brain characterized by headache and drowsiness progressing to coma. It occurs in epidemic and sporadic forms and, most notoriously, was the cause of an epidemic that followed World War I, leaving many helpless survivors.

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