FILARIASIS Two species of filarial worm cause genital disease | Dr. Vladimir Zelenko (Zelenko Protocol)

FILARIASIS

Two species of filarial worm cause genital disease in humans. Much the most important is Wuchereria bancroftii, which accounts for 90% of filarial infections and is estimated to infect 100 million people in the tropics. Of these, 40% have disfiguring manifestations and 27 million men are estimated to suffer from genital deformity.3 Genital morbidity in women is much rarer.4 Bancroftian (lymphatic) filariasis has been ranked the second leading cause of disability in the world by the World Health Organization (WHO) and ranked second to HIV in Haiti as a public health issue for the community.5 Onchocerciasis, caused by Onchocerca volvulus, is remembered by most students of tropical medicine for an unusual complication known as the “hanging groin,” caused by a combination of inguinal adenopathy and skin atrophy that results in hanging folds of skin containing lymph nodes. Minor deformities of scrotal skin may also develop. Recent surveys in endemic areas reported hanging groin in 14% in Nigeria6 and pendular scrotum in 19% in Ethiopia.7 The remainder of this section will deal with the more important Bancroftian filariasis.