Wuchereria bancrofti
Peter M. Lydyard, Michael F. Cole, John Holton, William L. Irving, Nino Porakishvili, Pradhib Venkatesan, Katherine N. Ward in Case Studies in Infectious Disease, 2010
What is the causative agent, how does it enter the body and how does it spread a) within the body and b) from person to person?Bancroftian, lymphatic filariasis is caused by Wuchereria bancrofti, a tissue-dwelling round worm or nematode.Male and female adult worms live in lymphatics.Female worms release larvae called microfilariae which enter the bloodstream.Various species of mosquitoes ingest microfilariae in the blood and pass infection onto others.Wuchereria is only found in humans, and there is no animal reservoir.
Engineering control of insect-borne diseases
Sandy Cairncross, Richard Feachem in Environmental Health Engineering in the Tropics, 2018
There are two main kinds of mosquito-borne filariasis. The first, Bancroftian filariasis due to Wuchereria bancrofti causes 90% of all cases of infection and occurs widely in the tropics (Figure 15.5). In certain areas, particularly in the towns and cities of Asia, Egypt and coastal Brazil, it is transmitted by the night-feeding Culex pipiens mosquitoes. Culex pipiens is a group or ‘complex’ of closely related mosquitoes (Curtis and Feachem 1981), which vary in such physiological characteristics as ability to hibernate or lay their first batch of eggs without taking a blood meal. The member of the Culex pipiens complex most widespread as a vector of Bancroftian filariasis is Culex quinquefasciatus which is the principal vector in the coastal cities of Brazil and of East Africa, and through much of urban Asia. However, in China and Japan the vector is C. pipiens pallens, while in Egypt it is C. pipiens molestus. Bancroftian filariasis is also transmitted by other mosquitoes (Figure 15.5). In much of Africa it is transmitted by the same Anopheles species that transmit malaria. In Polynesia, it is transmitted by day-feeding Aedes species and is one of the major disease problems of the area.
History of public health in Pacific Island countries
Milton J. Lewis, Kerrie L. MacPherson in Public Health in Asia and the Pacific, 2007
The other co-evolved, vector-borne human disease to hitch a ride to a new life is a species of filariasis, Wuchereria Bancrofti.5 The resulting medical condition is sometimes called elephantiasis from the swollen deformities consequent on lymphatic blockage caused by the effects of adult worms that live for years. These worms periodically release microfilariae into the blood to be picked up by feeding mosquitoes and transmitted to other humans. Bancroftian filariasis is exquisitely adapted to its vectors by producing microfilariae at the precise biting times of the locally prevalent mosquito involved in transmission. Wuchereria Bancrofti has a near continuous distribution from its undoubted home in central Africa through the Middle East, South Asia, Indo-China, Southeast Asia, thence New Guinea, northern Australia (formerly), and the Pacific Islands through to eastern Polynesia. In this instance it was not possible for humans to outrun the disease vector, for Wuchereria Bancrofti proved very flexible, and has adapted to numerous mosquito species for transmission, including Anopheles malaria vectors in Melanesia, but also local Aedes and Culex species across Melanesia and Polynesia, which are much less fastidious breeders than Anopheles. Infection with Bancroftian filariasis leads to disease in only a small proportion of cases producing deformity and handicap rather than death. Nevertheless, asymptomatic cases are capable of spreading the disease to others.
Impact of gamma irradiation on the development and reproduction of Culex pipiens (Diptera; Culicidae)
Published in International Journal of Radiation Biology, 2018
Mosquitoes play a serious role as vectors of numerous vertebrate blood pathogens. Culex pipiens Linnaeus (L) is a very common mosquito species in Egypt (Hassan et al. 2003; El-Kholy et al. 2018) studied its possible role in Hepatitis C virus transmission. It is the overwhelming vector of Wuchereria bancrofti that causes filariasis in humans (Abdel-Hamid et al. 2013), Rift Valley fever virus (El-Bahnasawy et al. 2013a) and West Nile virus (El-Bahnasawy et al. 2013b). Contemporary control methods, which largely rely on chemical insecticides, are not always effective due to the prevalent resistance of the mosquitoes to these insecticides. In addition, chemical insecticides have adverse effects on the environment, health and food chain through biomagnification of chemicals to the levels that exceed normal (Kumar et al. 2013).
Lymphatic filariasis vaccine development: neglected for how long?
Published in Expert Review of Vaccines, 2021
Vivek P Chavda, Anjali Pandya, Sreeranjini Pulakkat, Moinuddin Soniwala, Vandana Patravale
As per the World Health Organization (WHO), ‘Lymphatic filariasis (LF) is a vector-borne neglected tropical disease that causes the damage of the lymphatic system and can lead to lymphoedema (elephantiasis) and hydrocele (excess fluid inside the human scrotal sac) in infected individuals’ [1]. The filarial parasites that cause this infection are carried by mosquitoes. Invasion from parasitic nematodes (roundworms or helminths) of the family Filariodidea, such as Wuchereria bancrofti (W.bancrofti), Brugia malayi (B.malayi), or Brugia timori, causes the disease [2,3]. LF affects the lymphatic system and can cause abnormal growth of bodily parts, resulting in discomfort, physical disability, and social stigma. More than 198 million people were infected globally in 2000, approximately 130 million people in 2014, while the 2018 projection of approximately 51 million infected people indicates the progress made thus far toward the eradication of LF as a public health burden due to implementation of chemotherapy in 2000 [4]. LF continues to endanger 859 million people in 50 countries all over the world, necessitating preventative treatment to halt the spread of such a parasitic disease. The annual benchmark estimation of LF patients suggests 25 million males having hydrocele and over 15 million persons with lymphedema. At least 40 million individuals continue to suffer from these chronic illness symptoms [5]. Preventing LF could help to reduce possible suffering and stigma among the vulnerable underprivileged population.
Deciphering the anti-filarial potential of bioactive compounds from Ocimum sanctum: a combined experimental and computational study
Published in Pharmaceutical Biology, 2022
Ayushi Mishra, Vipin Kumar, Anchal Singh
Lymphatic filariasis (LF) is a major health concern of tropical and sub-tropical countries. The disease is caused by three nematode worms: Wuchereria bancrofti, Brugia malayi, and Brugia timori. Presently 893 million people in 49 countries are living at the risk of LF (Cromwell et al. 2020). The World Health Organisation (WHO) sponsored the Global Program to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis (GPELF) and recommends Triple Drug Therapy to block the transmission of Lymphatic Filariasis. The triple drug therapy comprises drugs ivermectin (IVM), diethylcarbamazine (DEC), and albendazole which have to be administered to the entire population living in endemic areas. These drugs are effective only on the larval stages and are completely ineffective on adult worms (Wadhawan et al. 2014). Several adverse effects are associated with anti-filarial drugs which include fever, headache, myalgia, fatigue, hypertension, vomiting, cough, seizures, vision problems, etc. (Behera and Bhatnagar 2018). Hence, there is an urgent need to find anti-filarial drugs with adulticidal activity and minimal side effects.
Related Knowledge Centers
- Brugia Malayi
- Brugia Timori
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- Lymphatic Filariasis
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- Disease Vector
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- Vaccine
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- Biological Life Cycle