Research Articles (SANBI)

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Browsing by Author "Aksoy, Serap"

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    Human African trypanosomiasis research gets booost: unravelling the tsetse Genome
    (PLOS, 2014) Aksoy, Serap; Attardo, Geoffrey; Berriman, Matthew; Christoffels, Alan; Lehane, Mike; Masiga, Daniel K.; Toure', Yeya
    Human African trypanosomiasis (HAT), also known as sleeping sickness, is a neglected disease that impacts 70 million people distributed over 1.55 million km2 in sub-Saharan Africa. Trypanosoma brucei gambiense accounts for almost 90% of the infections in central and western Africa, the remaining infections being from T. b. rhodesiense in eastern Africa. Furthermore, the animal diseases caused by related parasites inflict major economic losses to countries already strained. The parasites are transmitted to the mammalian hosts through the bite of an infected tsetse fly.
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    International Glossina Genome Initiative 2004-2014: a driver for post-genomic era research on the African continent
    (PLOS, 2014) Christoffels, Alan; Masiga, Daniel K.; Berriman, Matthew; Lehane, Mike; Toure', Yeya; Aksoy, Serap
    Human African trypanosomiasis (HAT), also known as sleeping sickness, is a neglected disease that impacts 70 million people distributed over 1.55 million km2 in sub- Saharan Africa and includes at least 50% of the population of theDemocratic Republic of the Congo [1]. Trypanosoma brucei gambiense accounts for more than 98% of the infections in central and West Africa, the remaining infections being from Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense in East Africa [2]. The parasites are transmitted to the hosts through the bite of an infected tsetse fly. Disease control is challenging as there are no vaccines, and effective, easily delivered drugs are still lacking. Treatment invariably involves lengthy hospitalization, with both medical and socioeconomic consequences.