Chapter 15 : Six Plagues of Africa

Depiction of Africa looking west with a burden on her back.

The head of a tsetse fly (Glossina), the vector of African sleeping sickness and nagana. (Courtesy of Dennis Kunkel Microscopy, Inc.)

A victim of African sleeping sickness. (Courtesy of Wallace Peters.)

Swelling of the lymph node in the neck known as Winterbottom's sign. (Courtesy of Wallace Peters and Peter Janssen, Antwerp, Belgium.)

Line of blind Africans walking with canes. In areas in which river blindness is endemic (Chad, Central Africa), it is not uncommon to see blind adults being led to the fields by children who have not yet lost their sight. (Courtesy of the National Library of Medicine.)

The microfilaria of Onchocerca. The microscopic worms are about 300 microns in length, or 20 times the width of the white blood cells.

River blindness. (A) Nodule containing the adult worms of Onchocerca. (Courtesy of the National Library of Medicine.) (B) Adult Onchocerca removed from the nodule. The adult female releases live offspring (microfilariae). (Courtesy of WHO/TDR/Baldry Irwin.)

Blindness as a result of Onchocerca infection. (Courtesy of WHO.)

An adult female Guinea worm emerging from a painful and enlarged ulcer. In some cases the adult worm may be removed by slowly and carefully pulling it out and winding it around a pencil or stick. (Courtesy of Wallace Peters and Brian Greenwood.)

Release into water of juveniles of the Guinea worm. (Courtesy of Wallace Peters and Anthony Duggan.)

The one-eyed copepod Cyclops, with a pair of egg sacs. Cyclops eats the juvenile Guinea worms to become infected. Photo by James M. Bell/Photo Researchers, Inc. © 2005 Photo Researchers, Inc.

Hookworms (white and threadlike) attached to the wall of the small intestine (A), where they suck blood using their razor-like teeth (B). (Panel A courtesy of Wallace Peters. Panel B courtesy of Dennis Kunkel Microscopy, Inc.)