Question

African sleeping sickness is caused by
(A) Trypanosoma
(B) Leishmania
(C) Latimera
(D) Plasmodium

Answer 1

Hint: African sleeping disease is predominantly found in the sub-African region. The disease causing agent responsible for this disease is spread by the tsetse fly. Common name of tsetse fly is Glossina sp. Hemolymphatic and neurological stages are two characterized stages in the African sleeping sickness disease.

Complete answer:
Pathogens are the disease causing agent. When they infect a healthy body bearing an individual, then the individual shows symptoms of that disease. The disease can be found by either noticing the symptoms in the body or by looking for the pathogen present in the body of an individual.
> Leishmania sp. don’t cause African sleeping disease. It causes leishmaniasis disease. That’s why option B is incorrect.
> Latimeria sp. don’t cause African sleeping disease. That’s why option C is incorrect.
> Plasmodium sp. Causes malaria. It does not cause African sleeping sickness. That’s why option D is incorrect.
African sleeping disease is found in the sub-African region. Trypanosma brucei is the pathogen which leads to African sleeping sickness disease. This pathogen is spread by means of tse- tse fly. Common name of this fly is Golssina sp. When this fly bites an infected person and then bite healthy individual. This leads to spreading the pathogen from individual to healthy person. That’s why option A is correct.

So, the correct answer is option A.

Additional information:
There are two phases in the life cycle of Trypanosoma sp in the human body. These are hemolymphatic and neurological phases. In the hemolymphatic stage, headache, fever, joint pain and weakness is found. Whereas in the neurological phase, the pathogen infects the nervous system via passing blood brain barriers. Behavioral symptoms, sleeping disorders are found in this phase.

Note: African sleeping disease is caused by Trypanosoma pathogen. It is characterized by hemolymphatic and neurological phases. Behavioral symptoms and sleeping disorders are found in the later stages of life cycle. This phase is characterized by neurological phases.