{"id":13883,"date":"2026-02-11T12:09:05","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T06:39:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=13883"},"modified":"2026-02-11T16:33:26","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T11:03:26","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><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Recently, the Union Health Minister launched the Annual Nationwide Mass Drug Administration (MDA) Campaign for the Elimination of Lymphatic Filariasis.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Lymphatic Filariasis<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is commonly known as <\/span><b>elephantiasis (<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Haatipaon) which is a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/neglected-tropical-diseases\" target=\"_blank\"><b>neglected tropical disease<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a vector-borne disease transmitted by the <\/span><b>female Culex mosquito.<\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>Cause: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is caused by infection with <\/span><b>parasites classified as nematodes<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (roundworms) of the family Filariodidea. There are 3 types of these thread-like filarial worms:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Wuchereria bancrofti<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which is <\/span><b>responsible for 90% of the cases<\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>Brugia malayi,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> which causes most of the remainder of the cases<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Brugia timori,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> which also causes the disease<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><b>Transmission Cycle: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Adult worms <\/span><b>nest in the lymphatic vessels<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and disrupt the normal function of the lymphatic system where they <\/span><b>produce millions of microfilariae<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (immature larvae) that circulate in the blood.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Infection occurs when filarial parasites are <\/span><b>transmitted to humans through mosquitoes.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><b>Symptoms:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The majority of <\/span><b>infections are asymptomatic<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> but in chronic conditions it leads to l<\/span><b>ymphoedema <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(tissue swelling) or <\/span><b>elephantiasis<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (skin\/tissue thickening) of <\/span><b>limbs and hydrocele (scrotal swelling).\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Treatment<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Elimination of lymphatic filariasis is possible by stopping the <\/span><b>spread of the infection<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> through <\/span><b>preventive chemotherapy.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><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=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">MDA involves administering <\/span><b>an annual dose of medicines <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">to the entire at-risk population.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source:<\/b> <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pib.gov.in\/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2225910&amp;reg=1&amp;lang=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">PIB<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lymphatic Filariasis is commonly known as elephantiasis (Haatipaon) which is a neglected tropical disease. Read more about Lymphatic Filariasis, Causes, Symptoms, Treatment, Latest 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":[5317,21,22,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-13883","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-lymphatic-filariasis","9":"tag-prelims-pointers","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","12":"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":4,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13883\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87315,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13883\/revisions\/87315"}],"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}]}}