African trypanosomes are extracellular hemoprotozoa that cause disease in humans and livestock. Trypanosoma brucei gambiense and T. b. rhodesiense cause sleeping sickness in humans, also called human African trypanosomiasis (HAT), an emerging disease in East and Central Africa [1], [2]. Infections with T. congolense, T. vivax, or T. b. brucei cause disease in livestock [1]. Various species of tsetse flies (Glossina spp.) can harbor African trypanosomes and act as their intermediate hosts. Humans and animals become infected with trypanosomes by bites of infected tsetse flies. A temporary local inflammation, the so-called chancre, develops in the skin at the site of the bite [1]. The trypanosomes move from the skin into the blood via the lymph system (Figure 1).
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