Trypanosomiasis Life Cycle

Two animations, from the Wellcome Trust, illustrate the life cycle of the trypanosomiasis protozoan parasite. They illustrate the journey of these single celled parasites, which cause human African trypanosomiasis or sleeping sickness, from the gut of the tsetse fly into the human bloodstream. If left untreated, the disease can be fatal.

When a tsetse fly feeds on a human carrying trypanosomes, the ingested parasites develop within the fly. A bite from an infected fly leads back to the human phase of the life cycle. Two separate animations illustrate the changes that occur in the human and fly stages of the life cycle.

The animations contain a lot of detail and can be used with students aged 16+ to illustrate transmission of the disease and the parasite's life cycle. They may be used with younger students as an extension to their learning.

Please note: From 2021, Adobe has discontinued support for Flash player and as a result some interactive files may no longer be playable. As an alternative method to accessing these files a group of volunteers passionate about the preservation of internet history have created project Ruffle (https://ruffle.rs/). Ruffle is an entirely open source project that you can download and run many interactive Flash resources. For further information regarding STEM Learning’s policy for website content, please visit our terms and conditions page.