Compare and contrast African sleeping sickness and primary amebic meningoencephalopathy
What will be an ideal response?
Both diseases are caused by protozoan parasites and have very high risk of fatality.
Trypanosoma brucei, which causes African sleeping sickness, is a true pathogen. It is a kinetoplastid transmitted by an insect vector, and initially establishes an infection of the blood. The parasite makes its way into the central nervous system and causes severe headache and progressively declining neurologic function leading to death. The disease progresses slowly, taking months or years to kill those infected. There is no vaccine, but there are medications effective against the parasite while it is still in the blood.
Both Acanthamoeba and Naegleria cause primary amebic meningoencephalopathy. Both are free-living, fresh water amoebae that can become accidental parasites when they get into the eyes, nose, or breaks in the skin. The amoebae rapidly make their way to the brain following cranial nerves. The disease progresses rapidly, sometimes killing only days after infection. There is no vaccine, and there are no reliable effective treatments.
Bloom's Taxonomy: Analysis
Section: Protozoan Diseases of the Nervous System
Learning Outcome: 20.19, 20.21
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Pseudomonas bacteria colonized the bile duct of a patient following his liver transplant surgery. This is an example of a
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Herpes simplex-1 (HSV-1) enters the ________ cranial nerve where it becomes latent.
Fill in the blank(s) with the appropriate word(s).