Many clinicians outside of Africa are unfamiliar with African Trypanosomiasis. It can be very easy to make the wrong diagnosis.
African trypanosomiasis may be misdiagnosed as:
(1) malaria
(2) systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) or other autoimmune disease
(3) Rickettsia infection
Risk factors for misdiagnosis:
(1) presence of concurrent malaria
(2) unfamiliarity with the disorder
(3) lack of a travel history
(4) negative blood smears
(5) negative CSF examination
(6) positive titers for various autoantibodies such as antinuclear antibody (ANA)
(7) false negative PCR
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Specialty: Infectious Diseases
