[Indirect immunofluorescence study of 200 cases of tryponosomiasis due to Trypanosoma gambiense]

The sera and CSF collected on 200 patients suffering from sleeping sickness were collected before treatment and tested with fluorescent antibody test. The proportion of strongly positive sera is very important in the first period and decreases progressively with the alteration of CSF. This shows the reliability of the FAT technique as a screening method because it is in the first period that it is difficult to diagnose the disease. 14% of CSF collected during the 1st period are positive with FAT: this fluorescence certainly reflects the presence of the parasite and confirms Burke et al. observations. The notion of periodicity can be questioned as well as the treatment protocol whick is traditionally based on the CSF cytochemistry.