Solving the Sleeping Sickness 'Mystery' - Inside Life Science Series - National Institute of General Medical Sciences

Solving the Sleeping Sickness 'Mystery'
By Emily Carlson
Posted February 9, 2011

Since before the 1300s, people living in many parts of Africa have been dying from a disease known as sleeping sickness. Despite public health campaigns that explain ways to stop infection—primarily by killing the disease-spreading tsetse fly—successful eradication has remained out of reach. That's partly because epidemiologists can't predict where cases will emerge next.

This map, which was generated using climate and land cover data, shows the presence of the disease-carrying tsetse fly across the country of Kenya. Information like this could help control the insect population and resulting cases of sleeping sickness. Credit: Joseph Messina.
Click for larger image"It's in places where people thought it shouldn't be, and it's not in places where they're sure it should be," says Joseph Messina, a geographer at Michigan State University.

Now, Messina's effort to map future tsetse fly distribution may help solve this sleeping sickness "mystery."

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Solving the Sleeping Sickness 'Mystery' - Inside Life Science Series - National Institute of General Medical Sciences