Vishwanath Dagdu Parit, 57, from a village in Pune district has been diagnosed with “sleeping sickness”, a rare kind of human trypanosoma levisi (an infection passed on from rats to humans) that afflicts 6 crore people in sub-Saharan Africa.

Undergoing treatment at the Sassoon General Hospital here, he is become subject of keen medical interest. Besides being a rarity in the subcontinent, what makes his case unique is that he has got it from an infected rat and not the tsetse fly, which is not found in India.

A senior official from National Infectious and Communicable Diseases in New Delhi confirmed to The Indian Express that Parit’s case is “unique as even after a month, the trypanosoma parasites exist in his blood”.

The Indian Veterinary Research Institute too has confirmed the infection as trypanosoma levisi. The parasite migrates through the circulatory system to the brain, where it mysteriously triggers trembling, lethargy and erratic behaviour, and if left untreated, could lead to coma and death.

State health authorities have procured Suramin, the drug that is used in Africa to treat human trypanosoma, with WHO’s assistance.

Struggling to recover, Parit is unmindful of the anxiety among local medical fraternity over his case. He believes it is some kind of “malaria”. All he hopes is for some kind of “cure”. “It causes me extreme fatigue,” he said.