Question: Is the Trypanosome deadly to humans?

Divya Venkatesh answered on 11 Mar 2014:

Depends on what kind of trypanosome it is. There are some (eg. ones that are scientifically called Trypanosoma brucei brucei) which only affect cattle and other animals. These are the ones we use in the lab as a ‘model’ to study trypanosomes in general.

The ones that infect humans are indeed deadly – if left untreated, the trypanosomes will manage to find their way into the brain. It becomes much harder to cure the disease at this point because the drugs we have are not very good and in fact quite dangerous. It’s almost like one hopes the stuff will kill the trypanosomes before the human host!