A disease of humans caused by Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense in eastern Africa from Ethiopia and Uganda south to Zimbabwe; it is clinically similar to Gambian trypanosomiasis but of shorter duration and more acute in form; patients suffer repeated episodes of pyrexia, become anaemic, and die commonly from cardiac failure.
Synonym: acute African sleeping sickness, acute trypanosomiasis, East African sleeping sickness, East African trypanosomiasis.
(05 Mar 2000)