Elephantiasis of the lower extremities in Ethiopia: failure to implicate onchocerciasis as an etiologic agent by skin-snip and fluorescent antibody staining techniques.

Abstract

Abstract The possible role of Onchocerca volvulus infections in the pathogenesis of elephantiasis of the lower extremities was explored in an Ethiopian population using standard skin-snip and fluorescent antibody techniques. All subjects studied (44) with the deformity who lived outside areas endemic for onchocerciasis were skin-snip negative and lacked specific antibody to onchocercal antigen. Positive skin-snip rates and mean microfilarial densities in 95 subjects with elephantiasis from areas endemic for the parasite were similar to those in subjects without elephantiasis from the same areas. No significant difference in mean sero-titers was found between infected subjects with elephantiasis and those without. The conclusion was drawn that, in this population, onchocerciasis was not related etiologically to elephantiasis of the lower extremities.