• Question: is the trypanosome common or rare

    Asked by to Divya on 13 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Divya Venkatesh

      Divya Venkatesh answered on 13 Mar 2014:

      Depends where you’re looking. In the tropical belt it’s all over the place. Africa, South America and even in some Asian countries. Trypanosomes are carried around by Tse-tse flies in Africa and Sandflies in South America and I’m not sure in Asia… they spend half their time in these flies and half in their ‘hosts’ – mammals like humans and cows etc. (where they get into when the flies bite them). Because these flies are restricted to the tropics, so are trypanosomes.

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