I know this might be a bit of a stretch, but I’ve been thinking about a possible link between parasites and MS and I’d love to hear your thoughts. About 7 years ago, I traveled to Tanzania and ended up getting bitten a lot by tsetse flies. At the time, I brushed it off as nothing serious. However, around 5 years ago, I began experiencing some strange neurological symptoms, which have since led to a diagnosis of Active Primary Progressive MS.
Lately, I’ve been doing some dives into my condition, trying to piece things together, and I came across something interesting. I found that African sleeping sickness, a condition transmitted by tsetse flies, shows some similarities in MRI results to MS. This got me thinking, could there be a connection?
I’m curious if anyone here has explored similar avenues or has thoughts on whether it’s worth asking my specialist to test for this parasite just incase. Has anyone else gone through something like this, or does this sound too far fetched?
I appreciate any input and I’m totally aware of how crazy this sounds
If it hasn’t already specifically been considered and rejected as a possible differential dx, in your shoes I would certainly ask the question. If you’ve potentially got something treatable, that’s worth a bit of trouble (and even potential eye-rolling from the doctors) to get to the bottom of.
I had an appointment today to discuss ocrevus treatment and they pretty much dismissed it when I brought it up. So I want to speak to my GP to investigate it and if that doesnt work I’m unsure on what the next step will be but I definitely want to rule this out. Thank you for the reply.
You probably know a lot more about sleeping sickness but, from a quick look at descriptions of the disease it looks as if anyone who gets infected has a strong chance of being dead after 7 years.
I think if you are worried about sleeping sickness then rather than look at similarities with MS I would concentrate on symptoms of sleeping sickness and the progression of the infection
I also encountered the tsetse fly when living and working in Nigeria between 72/75 where, on return to the UK, was referred to the London Hospital for Tropical Diseases (now part of UCLH) being tested for the parasite. I started having odd symptoms resulting in lots of investigations accumulating in an MS diagnosis in 1985. I did eventually get some answers but none were definitive to be attributed to any one event save it was a possibility starting with the tsetse fly. Actual diagnosis can be a very long journey but suggest a referral to Tropical Diseases could be a start for reassurance. BTW you are not being crazy as the tsetse fly is a very real worry.
