4. African Trypanosomiasis

If you’re bitten by the Tse Tse fly then you may become infected with this horrendous, fatal parasite. The fly carries the parasite which infects the body over a period of weeks and months, progressively working its way to the brain where it will eventually kill anyone who isn’t treated.

The infection is extremely painful and will cause confusion, fevers, headaches and joint pains; what makes this disease strange, though, is the effect it has on a person as they become more and more sick. Once in the brain, the parasite affects the sleeping pattern of an infected individual causing them to sleep during the day and stay awake restlessly at night. Eventually the sufferer will fall asleep and not wake up, slip into a coma and die. It’s for this reason that the disease is nicknamed the ‘sleeping sickness’.