Focus-specific clinical profiles in human African Trypanosomiasis caused by Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Diverse clinical features have been reported in human African trypanosomiasis (HAT) foci caused by Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense (T.b.rhodesiense) giving rise to the hypothesis that HAT manifests as a chronic disease in South-East African countries and increased in virulence towards the North. Such variation in disease severity suggests there are differences in host susceptibility to trypanosome infection and/or genetic variation in trypanosome virulence. Our molecular tools allow us to study the role of host and parasite genotypes, but obtaining matched extensive clinical data from a large cohort of HAT patients has previously proved problematic.

Methods/principal findings

We present a retrospective cohort study providing detailed clinical profiles of 275 HAT pa

SUBMITTER: MacLean LM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2998431 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature