Editing African trypanosomiasis (section)

==Prognosis==
If untreated, ''T. b. gambiense'' almost always results in death, with only a few individuals shown in a long-term 15-year follow-up to have survived after refusing treatment. ''T. b. rhodesiense'', being a more acute and severe form of the disease, is consistently fatal if not treated.<ref name=Lancet2013/>

Disease progression greatly varies depending on disease form. For individuals who are infected by ''T. b. gambiense'', which accounts for 92% of all of the reported cases, a person can be infected for months or even years without signs or symptoms until the advanced disease stage, where it is too late to be treated successfully. For individuals affected by ''T. b. rhodesiense'', which accounts for 2% of all reported cases, symptoms appear within weeks or months of the infection. Disease progression is rapid and invades the central nervous system, causing death within a short amount of time.<ref>{{cite web |title=Trypanosomiasis, human African (sleeping sickness) |date=March 2014 |publisher=World Health Organization |url=https://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs259/en/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140426104752/http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs259/en/ |archive-date=26 April 2014}}</ref>