8/12/2019 Tse Tse Fly Essay

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Its killing too much people weve gotta do something.Definitely, there are many ways to die. The ways of dying have changed through the time but at the

end people die from different reasons anyways. People die from reasons such as heart diseases,

cancer, stroking, car accidents and suicide which are the most common causes of death (Website

Medhelp). Many diseases have appeared through the time such as measles, chicken pox, smallpox,

poliomyelitis which were epidemical and they were controlled by vaccination which they resolved theissues. Africa is facing serious problems with the sleeping sickness that is caused by the

trypanosomiasis which has been spread by the carrier named tse tse fly. This insect is blamed for

transmitting the sleeping disease and it is causing that many Africans countries have stopped their

economic development. Authorities have tried to treat and controlled the epidemic but it is been

difficult. So, to stop this epidemic authorities have tried different strategies such as medicine, screening

and vector control.

Since ancient times medicine has played a very important role to stop and cure sicknesses, stopping the

sleeping sickness to spread is not the exception. Researchers in the pharmaceutical industry have

developed different drugs to diminish the different effects of the sleeping sickness. Unfortunately thereis not yet any medicine to prevent his contagion. However, there are medicines that have been

developed to treat the first phase of the disease which consists of muscle pain, headaches, dizziness

and sleepiness. For instance, one of the original drugs was atoxyl but one of his components is arsenic.

This caused that many patients got blindness in 1932 (Website Bc). Another medicines melarsoprol was

developed to reduce the side effect of the sleeping sickness but there are limited supplies remaining.

Some other medicines have been developed but different factors such the economical have stopped

their usage thus the sleeping sickness has expanded faster.

Another strategy that authorities have used is screening. Screening is a strategy used in a population to

identify an unrecognized disease without symptoms (Website Wikipedia). So, this technique has beenused to identify possible contagious agents. The program however has not been successful at all

because they have not done it correctly. People in charge of the program have screened just in high-

risk areas, as a result reported cases under-represent the actual level of incidence. So, as the disease

has stopped in some areas it has increased in another. In 1999, 40,000 people were reported, although

just 4 million people were screened out of 60 million at risk (Website Bc).

Not only medicine and screening have been helpful tools to stop the spread of the sleeping sickness

but also the vector control. The vector control is a way to exterminate animals, birds and insects that

carry disease pathogens. One of the most common famous vector control that many health

departments use around the world is the mosquito control. This technique is been used in theeradication of the tse tse fly which is the carrier of the sleeping disease. Ground spraying of

insecticides, aerial spraying, cloth spray with insecticide, cattle sprayed of insecticide, avoiding areas of

infection, wearing long sleeve-clothing, sleeping under bed nets, not driving in the back of opened

vehicles are some of the things that also include the vector control. However, due to the fact of small

budget only 2% of de areas at risk have been controlled (Website Bc).

8/12/2019 Tse Tse Fly Essay

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Humankind is in danger in one third of Africa and responsible authorities fear that an epidemic could

expand even more. The epidemic is affecting in different ways such as social, economic and political.

This is not the first time that the humankind faces terrible threatens like this. I think that in the future

humanity will face even more terrible threats and the sad part is that authorities have the resources to

solve this important issue and because of economic and organizational reasons they do not.

Word Citedhttp://www.medhelp.org/general-health/articles/The-25-Most-Common-Causes-of-Death/193?page=3

http://rense.com/general48/ango.htm

https://www.bc.edu/content/bc/schools/cas/biology/research/infect/tsetse.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screening_(medicine)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vector_control

http://www.medhelp.org/general-health/articles/The-25-Most-Common-Causes-of-Death/193?page=3http://www.medhelp.org/general-health/articles/The-25-Most-Common-Causes-of-Death/193?page=3http://rense.com/general48/ango.htmhttp://rense.com/general48/ango.htmhttps://www.bc.edu/content/bc/schools/cas/biology/research/infect/tsetse.htmlhttps://www.bc.edu/content/bc/schools/cas/biology/research/infect/tsetse.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screening_(medicine)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screening_(medicine)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vector_controlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vector_controlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vector_controlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screening_(medicine)https://www.bc.edu/content/bc/schools/cas/biology/research/infect/tsetse.htmlhttp://rense.com/general48/ango.htmhttp://www.medhelp.org/general-health/articles/The-25-Most-Common-Causes-of-Death/193?page=3