African Trypanosomiasis Market

Market Overview

African Trypanosomiasis, also known as sleeping sickness disease, is one of the rarest infectious diseases that can affect one’s sleep pattern to a great extent. It is a parasitic disease caused by protozoan parasite of genus Trypanosoma and is carried by tsetse fly.

There are two types of African Trypanosomiasis depending on the parasite: East African Trypanosomiasis caused by Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense and West African Trypanosomiasis caused by Trypanosomiasis brucei gambiense. West African Trypanosomiasis causes a fatal infection which lasts for years while East African Trypanosomiasis has a limited range and lasts for several weeks. The symptoms associated with African Trypanosoniasis vary from one stage to another. There are two stages which are as follows:

• First Stage (Hemolymphatic stage): The first stage is known as hemolymphatic stage due to the blood and lymphatic systems associated with this stage. During this stage, the skin infected by the tsetse fly form a trypanosomal chancre and the lymph nodes of the immune system become infected and enlarged. The various symptoms of the hemolymphatic stage are intermittent fever, headaches, skin lesions, facial edema, tachycardia and weight loss.

• Second stage (Neurologic or encephalitic stage): During the second stage, the brain becomes affected with few troubles in concentrating. The various symptoms of the neurologic stage are muscle weakness, behavioral changes such as irritability and mood swings, paralysis of a limb, speech disorders and sensory disorders.

African Trypanosomiasis can be diagnosed by examining the blood samples, bone marrow, lymph node fluid, cerebrospinal fluid or lymph node aspirate of the affected individual. However, the card agglutination test (CATT) is a useful test for the detection of trympanosome specific antibodies in blood, serum or plasma. CATT is a field and laboratory test usually applied for mass screening to detect African Trypanosoniasis. Moreover, three surgical tests are available for the detection of the parasite, namely, micro-CATT, wb-CATT, and wb-LATEX.

Based on the type of treatment, African Trypanosomiasis market can be segmented as follows:

• First stage treatment: The first stage disease treatment includes intravenous pentamidine for Trypanosomiasis brucei gambiense and intravenous suramin for Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense.
• Second stage treatment: The second stage disease treatment includes intravenous eflornithine and intravenous melarsoprol. However, combination of both eflornithine and nifurtimox is considered to be more effective in the treatment of African Trypanosomiasis.

According to WHO, 25,000 new cases of both East and West African Trypanosomiasis are reported each year globally. African Trypanosomiasis is primarily found in subtropical and equatorial Africa. The major driving factors for the growth of the African Trypanosomiasis market in this region are constantly growing number of poor population in East African, prevalence of unhygienic environment, rapid pace of technological advancement in the field of African Trypanosomiasis therapeutics, increasing number of population to opt for healthy lifestyle and the overall growing diagnostic and therapeutic market.

On the other hand, the huge cost of drugs involved in the treatment of African Trypanosomiasis and difficulty in availability of these medications would most likely impede the growth of this market. Geographically, the African Trypanosomiasis market can be segmented into four major segments: North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and rest of the world (RoW). Some of the top market players of the African Trypanosomiasis market are Sanofi, Genzyme Corporation, D-Pharm Ltd., aRigen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Immtech Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Anacor Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and many others.

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