麻豆社

Sleeping sickness kills a huge number of people in some sub-Saharan countries. They get infected when they're bitten by tsetse flies which pick up the parasite from cattle. Now many lives are being saved thanks in part to research done by a British scientist who's devoted much of her life to trying to eradicate the disease. Sue Welburn, Professor of Medical & Veterinary Molecular Epidemiology at Edinburgh University in Scotland, tells Newsday more.

(Photo: A tsetse fly, which transmits a Trypanosoma parasite that is the cause of sleeping sickness. Credit: Science Photo Library)