{"id":13883,"date":"2026-07-12T15:09:05","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T09:39:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=13883"},"modified":"2026-07-12T17:57:55","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T12:27:55","slug":"what-is-lymphatic-filariasis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/what-is-lymphatic-filariasis\/","title":{"rendered":"Lymphatic Filariasis"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Lymphatic Filariasis Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The West Bengal Health Department recently started a Mass Drug Administration (MDA) drive against filariasis (commonly known as elephantiasis) and aims to eliminate the disease in the State by 2030.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Lymphatic Filariasis<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lymphatic filariasis (LF), commonly known as <\/span><b>elephantiasis<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, is a <\/span><b>parasitic infection<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and a <\/span><b>neglected tropical disease.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It can cause <\/span><b>severe swelling in the legs <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and other parts of the body.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Lymphatic Filariasis <\/b><b>Cause<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is caused by <\/span><b>infection with parasites classified as <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/nematodes\/\" target=\"_blank\">nematodes<\/a> (roundworms)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of the family Filariodidea. T<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are<\/span><b> 3 types<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of these thread-like filarial worms:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Wuchereria bancrofti,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> which is responsible for <\/span><b>90% of the cases.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Brugia malayi, which causes most of the remainder of the cases.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Brugia timori, which also causes the disease.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Lymphatic Filariasis <\/b><b>Transmission<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a vector-borne disease <\/span><b>transmitted by the female Culex mosquito.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Adult worms nest in the lymphatic vessels <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and <\/span><b>disrupt the normal function<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of the lymphatic system, where they <strong>p<\/strong><\/span><b>roduce millions of microfilariae<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (immature larvae) that circulate in the blood.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In general, a <\/span><b>person won\u2019t get filariasis from a single mosquito bite<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It usually <\/span><b>takes repeated mosquito bites over several months <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(or even years) for a person to get the condition.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Lymphatic Filariasis <\/b><b>Symptoms<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>majority of infections are asymptomatic, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">but in <\/span><b>chronic conditions<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> it leads to <\/span><b>lymphoedema (tissue swelling) or elephantiasis (skin\/tissue thickening) <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of limbs and hydrocele (scrotal swelling).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Lymphatic Filariasis <\/b><b>Treatment<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Elimination <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of lymphatic filariasis is possible by stopping the spread of the infection through<\/span><b> preventive chemotherapy.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The WHO-recommended preventive chemotherapy strategy for lymphatic filariasis elimination is <\/span><b>mass drug administration (MDA).<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>MDA involves administering an annual dose of medicines <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">to the <\/span><b>entire at-risk population.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>News<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: <\/span><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/epaper.thehindu.com\/ccidist-ws\/th\/th_delhi\/issues\/193818\/OPS\/GFRG84E2F.1+GUVG860DM.1.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">TH<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lymphatic filariasis, or elephantiasis, is a parasitic disease caused by filarial roundworms that can lead to severe limb swelling. Read more about Lymphatic Filariasis, Causes, Symptoms, Treatment, News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":87239,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5317,21,22,8577],"class_list":["post-13883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","tag-lymphatic-filariasis","tag-prelims-pointers","tag-upsc-current-affairs","tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairsprelims-pointers","no-featured-image-padding"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13883"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13883\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87269,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13883\/revisions\/87269"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}