History and discovery of lymphatic filariasis

Lymphatic filariasis is an ancient parasitic disease. Filariasis was the first human disease described in which transmission through the skin was cause by the bites of arthropods. The earliest evidence of lymphatic filariasis comes from Egypt, with a statue of Pharaoh Mentuhotep II (2055–2004 BC) depicting swollen limbs, which are characteristic of the disease.

The earliest written record of elephantiasis comes from the Ebers Papyrus (1550 BC) in Egypt. The Greek medical writer, Celsus (30 BC 50 AD), also wrote about elephantiasis, the term as used then referring to both lymphatic filariasis and leprosy.

Doctor O. Wucherer (1868) found the embryonic filarial worms in the urine of a patient in Bahia, Brazil. T. R. Lewis (1872), working in India, observed the embryos in the urine and also in the blood, and Joseph Bancroft (1878) in Brisbane, Australia first described the adult worm. The observed species was later named after Bancroft, Wuchereria bancrofti.

The momentous discovery of the role of the mosquito in transmitting the disease was made by the Scotsman Patrick Mansion while he was practicing medicine in the Far East with the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs. Manson was the first to look for an intermediate host for lymphatic filariasis microfilariae. In 1877, he was finally able to pinpoint the microfilariae in mosquitoes. In that disease he recognized the parasites in peripheral blood films and also in postmortems material.

Between 1878 and 1882, Dr. Manson found that the Culex quinquefasciatus was the intermediate host and vector of microfilariae, when he was studying the relationship between microfilariae and elephantiasis, thus supplying the missing link in the life cycle of the disease.
History and discovery of lymphatic filariasis