Abstract
A Belgian traveller was diagnosed with human African trypanosomiasis (HAT) due to Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense nine days after visiting the Masai Mara area in Kenya. He presented with an inoculation chancre and was treated with suramin within four days of fever onset. Two weeks earlier, HAT was also reported in a German traveller who had visited the Masai Mara area. Because no cases have occurred in the area for over 12 years, this may indicate a focal cluster of HAT.
Highlights
Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense is endemic in East and southern Africa and is transmitted to humans and game alike by tsetse flies of the Glossina morsitans group, which feed during the day
In 2007, a German patient infected with T. b. rhodesiense HAT in the Serengeti, Tanzania, died of multi-organ failure five days after the onset of the acute febrile phase
The diagnosis had been missed by another physician in Zanzibar, where trypanosomiasis does not occur, four days before the patient died despite fever and the presence of a chancre
Summary
Human African trypanosomiasis in a Belgian traveller returning from the Masai Mara area, Kenya, February 2012. A Belgian traveller was diagnosed with human African trypanosomiasis (HAT) due to Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense nine days after visiting the Masai Mara area in Kenya. He presented with an inoculation chancre and was treated with suramin within four days of fever onset. HAT was reported in a German traveller who had visited the Masai Mara area. Because no cases have occurred in the area for over 12 years, this may indicate a focal cluster of HAT
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