Forum for Science, Industry and Business

Lymphatic Filariasis Causes Devastating Social and Economic Losses

These were the findings of a new study by Myrtle Perera (Marga Institute, Sri Lanka), David Molyneux (Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, UK) and colleagues in the recently launched open-access journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases.

Lymphatic filariasis (LF) is a tropical parasitic disease transmitted by mosquitoes that causes extreme swelling of the limbs and male genitals. Despite recent successes in preventing the transmission of LF, say the authors, some 40 million people worldwide who already have the disease have been largely neglected by public health policy makers.

If effective disease control interventions are to be successfully implemented, the researchers propose, the full extent of the disability must be understood. In order to inform future interventions and policy measures, the study sought a greater understanding of the consequences of the disease for individuals and their families, the barriers they face to accessing care, and their coping strategies.

The researchers conducted in-depth interviews with 60 people with LF in southern Sri Lanka. The participants described how the social isolation from stigma caused emotional distress and delayed diagnosis and treatment. Free treatment services at government clinics were avoided because the participants’ condition would be identifiable in public.

One participant said: “I am mentally broken down and do not know how long I can live like this, shunned and rejected and confined to this house.”

While many aspects of the disease such as risk of infection and access to treatment facilities varied according to economic status, loss of income due to the condition was reported by all households in the sample, across all income levels. Households that were already relying on low incomes before infection were pushed into near destitution.

The authors call for an expansion of LF control programs beyond measures to break the transmission of disease. “Even if the LF elimination program is successful in arresting transmission of the disease so that there are no new cases,” they say, “hundreds of thousands of people in Sri Lanka will continue to suffer clinical manifestations of the disease and will remain trapped in poverty. The affected households will need help and support for many years despite transmission having been arrested.”

CITATION: Perera M, Whitehead M, Molyneux D, Weerasooriya M, Gunatilleke G (2007) Neglected Patients with a Neglected Disease? A Qualitative Study of Lymphatic Filariasis. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 1(2): e128. doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0000128

Andrew Hyde | alfa
Further information:
http://www.plos.org
http://ntds.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pntd.0000128

Im Focus: Fizzy soda water could be key to clean manufacture of flat wonder material: Graphene

Whether you call it effervescent, fizzy, or sparkling, carbonated water is making a comeback as a beverage. Aside from quenching thirst, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have discovered a new use for these "bubbly" concoctions that will have major impact on the manufacturer of the world's thinnest, flattest, and one most useful materials -- graphene.

As graphene's popularity grows as an advanced "wonder" material, the speed and quality at which it can be manufactured will be paramount. With that in mind,...

Im Focus: Exotic quantum states made from light: Physicists create optical “wells” for a super-photon

Physicists at the University of Bonn have managed to create optical hollows and more complex patterns into which the light of a Bose-Einstein condensate flows. The creation of such highly low-loss structures for light is a prerequisite for complex light circuits, such as for quantum information processing for a new generation of computers. The researchers are now presenting their results in the journal Nature Photonics.

Light particles (photons) occur as tiny, indivisible portions. Many thousands of these light portions can be merged to form a single super-photon if they are...

Im Focus: Circular RNA linked to brain function

For the first time, scientists have shown that circular RNA is linked to brain function. When a RNA molecule called Cdr1as was deleted from the genome of mice, the animals had problems filtering out unnecessary information – like patients suffering from neuropsychiatric disorders.

While hundreds of circular RNAs (circRNAs) are abundant in mammalian brains, one big question has remained unanswered: What are they actually good for? In the...

Im Focus: RAVAN CubeSat measures Earth's outgoing energy

An experimental small satellite has successfully collected and delivered data on a key measurement for predicting changes in Earth's climate.

The Radiometer Assessment using Vertically Aligned Nanotubes (RAVAN) CubeSat was launched into low-Earth orbit on Nov. 11, 2016, in order to test new...

Im Focus: Scientists shine new light on the “other high temperature superconductor”

A study led by scientists of the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (MPSD) at the Center for Free-Electron Laser Science in Hamburg presents evidence of the coexistence of superconductivity and “charge-density-waves” in compounds of the poorly-studied family of bismuthates. This observation opens up new perspectives for a deeper understanding of the phenomenon of high-temperature superconductivity, a topic which is at the core of condensed matter research since more than 30 years. The paper by Nicoletti et al has been published in the PNAS.

Since the beginning of the 20th century, superconductivity had been observed in some metals at temperatures only a few degrees above the absolute zero (minus...