Symptoms Of Lymphatic Filariasis: Causes, Diagnosis And Prevention

Symptoms Of Lymphatic Filariasis: Causes, Diagnosis And Prevention . Lymphatic filariasis also known as elephantiasis is a painful and disfiguring disease caused by thread like worms called Wuchereria bancrofti, Brugai malayi, and Brugia timori. The disease is transmitted by infected mosquito bite. An adult worm causes blockage in the lymphatic system producing an array of symptoms. It can cause acute and chronic infections.

Symptoms of acute lymphatic filariasis include filarial fever, nausea, vomiting, pain and swelling in testes and swelling of lymph nodes.

Symptoms of chronic filariasis include Hydrocele. It is important symptom. Most males suffering from this disease may have one of its symptoms as that of hydrocele.

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Lymphoedema: The affected region gets swollen. This is due to the blockage caused in the lymph channel by an adult worm. Mostly legs, hands, scrotum, and breast are swollen. The leg become enlarged in size and look similar to that of elephant leg, for this reason the disease is also called elephantiasis.

In chronic cases the patient may complain of passing milky–white urine.

Lymphatic filariasis occurs only sporadically in children.

Management and outcome of lymphatic filariasis may depend on the stage of the disease, its severity and associated complications.

Causes Of Lymphatic Filariasis

According to an estimate, the disease is prevailing in almost 80 countries.

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At least half of the sufferers are seriously disfigured by the disease. It has been eradicated from USA, and it is most prevalent in India, Africa and in Pacific nations. The primary cause is haphazard growth of cities. It becomes a breeding place for mosquitoes.

The larve enter in human body during a mosquito bite. It travels in the lymphatic system and matures into an adult worm. The adult worm lives for 6 to 8 years in the lymphatic system and produces millions of microfilaria which circulate in the blood.

The major vectors for W. bancrofti are Aedes and culex species of mosquito.

Lymphatic Filariasis Diagnosis

Below are given some of the diagnostic tests that may help to diagnose lymphatic filariasis.

Microfilaria detection: Blood is collected at night when the microfilaria is circulating in the blood and 20 microliter of blood is spread over a dry slide and it is stained with Giemsa stain. Recently, membrane filtration method is used as a sensitive technique for detecting microfilaria in blood.

Antigen detection: Circulating filarial antigen detection has become an important for diagnosis of W. bancrofti infection. The test is more specific in comparison to earlier tests. Two tests are available. The first is ELISA method and the other is Immunochromatography test.

X-ray diagnosis: Conventional x-ray is only useful in diagnosing Tropical Pulmonary eosinophilia where certain typical changes such as thickening of interstitial lining and mottling are seen.

Ultrasonography: Sonography of lymphatics of scrotum in men, breast and peritoneum in women can reveal rapidly moving adult worms dance. It is also called filarial dance sign.

Lymphoscintigraphy: It may help to identify lymphatic functions though not exactly the extent of damage.

Prevention Of Lymphatic Filariasis

• One of the most important criteria for prevention of filariasis especially in endemic areas is to take measures against mosquito bites.
• Insecticide treated nets and indoor spraying will help to suppress the transmission.
• Patients with elephantiasis, lymphedema or hydrocele should maintain their hygiene to prevent secondary infections.
• DEC is the medicine which is given as a single dose for two days in every month as a prophylactic for people from non endemic areas. In endemic areas, DEC medicated salt has been tried with successful result.