[Symptoms of human trypanosomiasis at the first diagnostic phase in the People Republic of Congo (author's transl)].

A study of clinical symptoms of trypanosomiasis has been carried out on 317 patients diagnosed actively in the field by lymphatic gland puncture and fluorescent antibody test in two foci of People's Republic of the Congo. The presence and frequency of the signs have been evaluated according to the focus, age, sex, period, the level of disturbance of C.S.F. and the results of parasitology. Thus, the authors demonstrate that: --9 p. 100 of patients show symptoms; --symptomatology of the woman is richer than that of the man; --several symptoms are closely related to age (fever, glands hypertrophy, cramps, anorexia, liver and spleen enlargement, impotence). They point out moreover: --the precocity of nervous signs which often are shown by patients without any disturbance of C.S.F.; --the lack of correlation between apparent severity of the infection and the level of disturbance of C.S.F.; --the variation of frequency of adenopathy according to kinetics of endemic and the level of immunity of the populations. Finally, the results obtained in the field are compared with those given by health care deliveries.