Elephantitis, Including Details About Recent Medical Advances Term Paper

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Elephantitis, including details about recent medical advances in the treatment of the disorder and general information about the disorder and the effects it has on the body. Elephantitis is a very serious disease that affects the lymph nodes in the body, and is carried by mosquitoes. Until recently, it has been very difficult to treat, but new treatments have been found that are showing promise in eliminating the disease, which was once thought to be incurable.

Elephantitis, (also called lymphedema filariasis), is a unique disease that is caused by microscopic worms that only live in adult adults' lymph nodes. A researcher writes, "It is a mosquito borne parasitic disease caused by thread like worms that live in the human lymph system. The worms causing this are wuchereria bancrofti, brugia malayi and brugia timori" ("Health Care Magic"). The worms breed in the lymphatic system and obstruct it, which causes the affected limb to swell, often dramatically and grotesquely. The editors continue, "Due to lymphatic obstruction, the back pressure in the lymphatic channels develops leading to dilatation of the superficial vessels, resulting in extreme swelling" ("Health Care Magic"). There is a specific chain of events that allow the worms to mature. Their larvae can only survive in specific types of mosquitoes, while the worms themselves can only survive inside the human body. When a mosquito bites an infected person, the larvae travel into the mosquito through the blood, and live there until the mosquito deposits them in another human when they bite. The larvae then travel to the lymph nodes, mature into adult worms, and start the process all over again. The worms can live anywhere from three years to eight years, but some have been known to live twenty years or more. That is why it is so difficult to treat the disease; the worms are long-lived and consistently reproduce.

The disease can affect different areas of the body, but two of the most common are the legs and arms. It is a rare disease, and usually occurs in the tropics, mainly in South America, the Caribbean, Central Africa, Asia, and the Pacific Islands ("Medical Dictionary").

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The mosquito carries the worm, and when it bites a victim, the worm enters the body and settles in the lymph vessels. Surprisingly, the disease seems to currently be spreading, for some reason. A medical dictionary notes, "It is estimated that 120 million people in the world have lymphatic filariasis. The disease appears to be spreading, in spite of decades of research in this area" ("Medical Dictionary"). No one knows why it is spreading. There are a few, very rare, additional causes of Elephantitis, which include a protozoan disease called leishmaniasis, repeated streptococcal infections, removing lymph nodes surgically, or a hereditary birth defect ("Medical Dictionary").

Symptoms of Elephantitis include "Swelling of lymph nodes, lymphedema, swollen arm pit lymph nodes, swollen groin lymph nodes, breast swelling, arm swelling, fever, massive leg swelling, male genital swelling, pain, and thickened skin" ("Health Care Magic"). Because the threadworms that cause the disease can live for many years, symptoms often last for an extremely long time. Another researcher notes, "Due to the long lifespan of the wuchereria worms, therapy lasts several years, during which time the symptoms continue to persist,' said University of Bonn professor Achim Horauf" (Outland). Often, the initial symptoms lead to other symptoms. The Dictionary continues, "The body's allergic reactions may include repeated episodes of fever, shaking chills, sweating, headaches, vomiting, and pain. Enlarged lymph nodes, swelling of the affected area, skin ulcers, bone and joint pain, tiredness, and red streaks along the arm or leg also may occur" ("Medical Dictionary"). Abscesses on the lymph nodes and vessels, and on the skin, are also common. The symptoms come on gradually, and as they….....

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