Classification: Protist - group Mastigophora (flagellated protozoa); hemoflagellate (infects the blood and human tissues)
Cell characteristics: Organisms are slender, with a wavy, undulating membrane and an anteriorly protruding flagellum with a visible nucleus.
Divided into two subspecies: T. brucei gambiense (Central and West Africa) and T. brucei rhodesiense (East Africa). They are very similar morphologically.
Source: Humans, cattle and some wild animals.
Pathogenicity: Causative agent of African sleeping sickness (trypanosomiasis). Symptoms include intermittent fever, enlarged spleen, swollen lymph nodes and joint pain. Eventually, CNS symptoms occur, ranging from personality shifts and sleep disorders to paralysis, coma and death.
Transmission Vector is the Tsetse fly (genus Glossina), which is essential to the life cycle of this parasite.
Trypanosoma brucei
