trypanosomiasis

noun

try·​pano·​so·​mi·​a·​sis tri-ˌpa-nə-sə-ˈmī-ə-səs How to pronounce trypanosomiasis (audio)
plural trypanosomiases tri-ˌpa-nə-sə-ˈmī-ə-ˌsēz How to pronounce trypanosomiasis (audio)
: infection with or disease caused by trypanosomes

Examples of trypanosomiasis in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
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These include some of mankind’s most ancient microbial adversaries: malaria, leprosy, cholera, typhoid and human African trypanosomiasis (HAT). Rebecca Kreston, Discover Magazine, 19 Aug. 2013 Another example is the parasite Trypanosoma brucei, which causes the disease African trypanosomiasis, commonly known as sleeping sickness. Jerome Groopman, The New Yorker, 5 Dec. 2022 Around the end of the nineteenth century, two major African trypanosomiasis epidemics swept through what is now Eastern Uganda, and Western Kenya. Carey Baraka, Quartz Africa, 26 Apr. 2020 And in 2020, the World Health Organization hopes to eliminate sleeping sickness, or African trypanosomiasis, as a public health problem. Davide Castelvecchi, Scientific American, 30 Dec. 2019 Local medical personnel are receiving more training to screen for and diagnose trypanosomiasis. Washington Post, 30 Oct. 2019 The parasite then enters the bloodstream and causes Chagas disease, also known as trypanosomiasis. Meera Senthilingam, CNN, 19 May 2017

Word History

Etymology

trypanosome (or its source, New Latin Trypanosoma) + -iasis

Note: The term was perhaps introduced by D.E. Salmon and Ch. Wardell Stiles in Emergency Report on Surra, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Animal Industry—Bulletin No. 42 (Washington, D.C., 1902), pp. 16-17. The authors clearly regarded the word as a neologism: "As there is no Latin term signifying an infection with Trypanosoma, and as there is considerable confusion in the vernacular names, we herewith propose to introduce the term trypanosomiasis, referring to any infection of any animal with parasites belonging to the flagellate family Trypanosomidae."

First Known Use

1902, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of trypanosomiasis was in 1902

Dictionary Entries Near trypanosomiasis

Cite this Entry

“Trypanosomiasis.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/trypanosomiasis. Accessed 30 Dec. 2024.

Medical Definition

trypanosomiasis

noun
try·​pano·​so·​mi·​a·​sis tri-ˌpan-ə-sə-ˈmī-ə-səs How to pronounce trypanosomiasis (audio)
plural trypanosomiases -ˌsēz How to pronounce trypanosomiasis (audio)
: infection with or disease (as African sleeping sickness or Chagas disease) caused by flagellates of the genus Trypanosoma

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