A good friend of mine is recovering in a South African hospital after contracting Sleeping sickness in the Zambezi Valley, it has been a rough few weeks and he is still not completely out of the woods. In talking to a few outfitters it sounds like this year there have been 2 cases from clients who hunted in the Luangwa and 2 deaths from hunters that had visited Tanzania and were misdiagnosed on their return to Europe.

It seems like there is a resurgence in the number of people contracting sleeping sickness from tsetse flies or either it has just been a very unlucky year for a few people? I havent heard of any cases from the Luangwa or Zambezi in years and only the odd one from TZ, with the last one i knew of being Steve Attwell many years ago.

Sleeping sickness is no joke and if it weren't for an on the ball doctor, a speedy evacuation to Harare and subsequently South Africa there is no doubt i would be minus a friend; a fit, young, strong and healthy one at that.

Apart from the annoyance of the tsetse flies i have never bothered or thought about them more than their red hot bites, there is not much you can do in the field to stop them. But keep it in the back of your mind if you fall ill after a safari in a tsetse infested area

I also met a hunter that supposedly contracted Sleeping sickness. Plus a few reports from the Zambezi and western Tanzania including Attwell's event.

I personally know two fellows who contracted it within this past year in the Zambezi Valley. Both are doing fine now but had a tough go at it.

recently my friend EDUARDO GERLERO a great international hunter died here in BUENOS AIRES ,after contracting the illness in a safari in TANZANIA.

Sounds like DDT needs to be brought back.

A myriad of ills can be gotten when you are in other countries. Some of the diseases we don't have to consider here in the States, our bodies have no built in tolerance or immunity from. I've always taken all the meds for malaria but have never seen a mosquito in 5 trips. The tsetse flies, I've only encountered in Moz and Zim and they are a definite risk it appears.

An acquaintance from Victoria who was hunting elephant in Botswana contracted Sleeping Sickness and has spent at least a couple of weeks in Houston in a hospital fighting the disease. Quite serious and something we need to keep top of mind when traveling. Much is written about the dangerous game of Africa but the three things that scare me most are mosquitoes, tsetse flies and African drivers! Cow ellies be damned...

True that one Russell!

quote:

Originally posted by bwanamrm:
An acquaintance from Victoria who was hunting elephant in Botswana contracted Sleeping Sickness and has spent at least a couple of weeks in Houston in a hospital fighting the disease. Quite serious and something we need to keep top of mind when traveling. Much is written about the dangerous game of Africa but the three things that scare me most are mosquitoes, tetses flies and African drivers! Cow ellies be damned...

Thanks Russell for giving me something to think about as I am in ATL on the way over.

One of Buzz's cameramen, Justin Drainer, contracted it last year as well as one other person I am familiar with. Justin spent a month in the hospital and a portion of that time was in and out of a coma. Lost a bunch of weight. It is bad news. There are two phases to the disease and once it enters the neurological phase the damage caused can be irreversible if not fatal. My sense is that it is not in all areas with tsetse flies, but just certain areas. For what is it worth, Justin said that the bite he contracted the disease from was one that showed unusual swelling for a tsetse bite and would not heal. The other person had the same initial symptoms. So if you have a unusual tsetse bite, might keep a close eye on it.

quote:

Originally posted by MJines:
One of Buzz's cameramen, Justin Drainer, contracted it last year as well as one other person I am familiar with. Justin spent a month in the hospital and a portion of that time was in and out of a coma. Lost a bunch of weight. It is bad news. There are two phases to the disease and once it enters the neurological phase the damage caused can be irreversible if not fatal. My sense is that it is not in all areas with tsetse flies, but just certain areas. For what is it worth, Justin said that the bite he contracted the disease from was one that showed unusual swelling for a tsetse bite and would not heal. The other person had the same initial symptoms. So if you have a unusual tsetse bite, might keep a close eye on it.

Mike,

You and I are talking about the same guys. The other guy says that if Justin had not just gotten over the illness, his would have probably been misdiagnosed as Malaria. Justin took one look at him and loaded him up for a trip to the hospital. Took him 2 months to start feeling like himself again. Very bad news!

I contracted Tryps at the end of Dec 2006 from the Tarangire area in Tanzania! Took 7 days to diagnose it definitively..... previous diagnosys was a brown recluse spider bite! I got healed by the same doc that mended Atwell, Ricky Ramoni and a bunch of others, Dr Saio at the Nairobi hospital. He is a class act when it comes to ALL tropical diseases.

I agree with what has been said - if you fall ill with malaria like symptoms within 3 weeks (Approx 18 day average incubation period) of your hunt in a tse tse fly zone then BEG your Doc for a tryp test. Remember it is very easy to detect the parasite in your blood......if you know what to look for!! And that is half the problem as it is not a common illness so hospital labs are not always able to detect the parasite in the blood screen.

Two of the main symptoms for me - that differentiate it from malaria - re:
1- Infected bite. The infected bite very quickly turns into a boil (usually) or, as in my case, like a burn wound.





2- The nearest lymph nodes become highly swollen and painful.

There are 2 main strains of tryps -Rhodensie and Gambiensi - (not sure of spelling) and the one occuring between Tz and Southern Africa is the Rhodensie strain which is lethal if left untreated. I think the Gambiensi strain isn't always lethal but once its in your neurological system its permanent (I stand for correction on this?).
I lost 25 lbs in 15 days of hospital and it took me 4 months to fully recover full fitness! One of the side effects is hepatitis as your liver and kidneys struggle to deal with the parasites and medicine.

If anyone has a friend that is in a hospital struggling with the illness, let me know and I will gladly give the details of Dr Saio whom i strongly recommend any foreign doctor to consult with on the best treatment procedures.

Thanks Bwana, great post and PM sent for doctors details

quote:

Sounds like DDT needs to be brought back.

As bad as the tsetse fly is, he might be the hunters best friend. Sleeping sickness is no joke, and we have to be carefull when in those areas. But without the tsetse fly the Zambeze Valley, and a lot of other prime safari areas would be cattle ranches now.

Appart from insect repellent, what other precautions can one take against sleeping sickness?

Saeed, none that i am aware of? The positive side is that infected flies are like 1 in a million..... Tryps IS curable provided it is diagnosed in time - preferrably within the first 4 days or so and treated accordingly. Many hospitals don't carry the treatment serum. GPs often don't have experience with the disease, even in areas where its prevalent. Whenever possible I suggest a doctor that specializes in tropical medicine/diseases be contacted for advice.

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
Appart from insect repellent, what other precautions can one take against sleeping sickness?

Other than avoiding the tsetse flies, none that I'm aware of.

http://www.shakariconnection.c...iasis-in-africa.html

FWIW, if anyone does get it, they should be eternally grateful if they can either afford or have the insurance for the more modern treatment because the older, cheaper treatment they give to the locals is excruciatingly painful....... I've seen strong, grown men shriek and weep whilst it's being administered.......

Prevention...pyrithrum on your clothes or an overweight client somewhere near by..tsetse fly are after a quality, high fat meal...and they don't seem to find me apertising if there are any other options

Tsetse dept and parks maintained a vigourous persecution of tsetse fly until 1997- DDT is still used in Zimbabwe- we never banned it . but in 1997 the EU who was funding the trypanosomiasis controll programme throughout southern africa decided to change their goal from erradicating Tsetse to 'living with tsetse'.

This was partially caused by the fact that the head of the project in southern Africa - one Vitalis Chadenga was starting to live exceptionally well...

DDT airial sprays were continued for another two years and ground sprays for another 3 years.

Vitalis changed over to director conservation at National parks in 1998 and would have become Dirtector General when Willas Makombe went down except for beeing viewed as too soft on white farmers and too indiscreat with the secretaries at parks. Despite the accusations by the EU about Vitalis, he was certainly a good orginiser and once he moved over to National Parks, Tsetse dept rapidly imploded.

By 2002 we has the first white guy known to have contracted sleeping sickness since 1974...he was the manager at the banana farm in Kariba. It was miss diaognosed as a spider bite on his hand and malaria- he died. One cause of death was known to be sleeping sickness Parks ordered that several game scouts who had recently died of 'malaria' be exumed and checked 6 of them were shown to have died from Sleeping sickness - five from Mkanga bridge and one from Kariba.

Then garry hopkins caught it in Makuti and was in hospital for 3 months- only diognissed once it was established in the CNS...and parks deaths have climbed steadily.

Tsetse have rapidly regained much of their former range in the North and are now back at the 1965 limits.

But there are a couple of much nastier diseases creaping over the mozambique border...

Hey Ganyana, I had a Hungarian hunter get sleeping sickness won a hunt with me in Chewore South back in 1996, he went into a coma for 3 months.

Pete, shifting gears, good luck with your impending wedding. I wish you and your financee all the best. Oh yea, and don't drink too much on Friday.

Pete- that info certainly never landed on my desk or cris Foggin's. Not really surprising since the main tsetse controll effort was in the escarpment...

Have Fun Friday

Ganyana: What might they be? Bwanamich: It wouldn't hurt for you to provide us with the full details on Dr. Saio, as I for one, would like to have that information set aside right now in my personal information bank just in case it's needed in the future.

Here is a recent article mapping the risky areas of various African countries, scroll down near end of article for some nice maps:
Moyowosi Game Reserve, Tanzania and Mana Pools National Park, Zimbabwe are a couple of the many riskier areas.

http://www.who.int/trypanosomi...leeping_Sickness.pdf

Untreated T. b. rhodesiense usually kills before it develops into Central Nervous System infection.
Untreated T. b. gambiense is more likely to be survived long enough to develop into the CNS infection, a slower death.

I got bit by tsetse many times in Moyowosi, but the Bateleur was guarding us.

quote:

Pete, shifting gears, good luck with your impending wedding. I wish you and your financee all the best.

Man that gal has to be a saint to take on old Pete! Best of luck dude...

This has been a most informative thread. Thanks everyone.

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
Appart from insect repellent, what other precautions can one take against sleeping sickness?

lol. You don't seem to need it! Not as long as I am in the back of the same truck as you anyway.

Scary stuff.I hope important measures are taken immediately before it gets worst.I heard that a black circle around the bite that doesn`t go away is another sign of sleeping sickness.

I had a nasty bite on my wrist. While no permanent damage was done, the bite would erupt every three weeks for about 6 months before fully healing. That was 6 years ago.

quote:

Originally posted by Ganyana:

Tsetse have rapidly regained much of their former range in the North and are now back at the 1965 limits.

My initial reation to the above is GOOD! Let the tsetse keep people and goats out of the game lands. Maybe wildlife habitat will even start re-colonising agricultural areas made possible by the spraying. Sadly, given the advances in the bush meat trade, I doubt this will translate into more wildlife. Still, where there is soil there is hope.

I wonder what the old Tsetse Dept. hunters think of all this? A lot of blood, sweat and tears undone.

Dean

Ganyana care to share more detail about the more nasty diseases from Mozambique?

Comming in from Moz

Marbergs virus (basically Ebola)
leishmaniasis
Elephantis (Wuchereria bancrofti) - southern African version only afects the genitals
River Blindness
Dengue fever (from Zambia rather than Moz)
and most fun of all, (NOT) Makola virus.

Maybe I better cancel my next African hunt!

465H&H

UEG,

Go to this link for full details on Dr Saio.
http://www.nairobihospital.org/section.asp?ID=103

Great! Thanks for the link!

A friend of mine just caught sleeping sickness after visitng Nyakolwe Game Ranch in Luangwa two weeks ago. None of the local hospitals managed to diagnose the disease. Luckily for him he has been flown to South Africa. He is undergoing treatment and improving.