What Is Elephantiasis?
What is Elephantiasis? Elephantiasis is a disease that not only gives you a fever, and other common symptoms, but causes your limbs to swell up to 4 times the original size.
How Do You Get Elephantiasis?
The most common way to get Elephantiasis is through an infected mosquito. If a mosquito has been infected by microfilariae, then all of the mosquitoes hosts are infected by it as well.
How Do You Know You Have Elephantiasis?
The first time you are infected by a mosquito, your limbs do not swell. The swelling only occurs after several bites. Initially when you are infected, you will have red streaks on your skin, skin ulcers, chills, constant high temperatures, uncontrollable vomiting, headaches, immense amounts of sweating, and joint pain.
Is Elephantiasis Deadly?
Elephantiasis is not deadly, but it is capable of incapacitating the host. Even though, it won't kill you, it will impact your life dramatically.
Is Elephantiasis Common?
Elephantiasis is common in tropical and subtropical areas. About 120 million people are infected with Elephantiasis today, and more than 1.3 billion people are at risk.
Can You Prevent Elephantiasis?
Yes, you can prevent it, but in order to do so, you must take certain drugs. To help prevent it, you can wear clothes with lots of coverage, and use bug spray to keep mosquitoes away. Click on the button below to see what drugs prevent Elephantiasis.
How Do You Treat Elephantiasis?
There are a couple of drugs that will remove some of the filariae, but basic treatment would be common sense. Elevating the infected limb, and using compressive bandages will keep the swelling down, but if not attended to in early stages, Elephantiasis can become permanent.
Is Elephantiasis Contagious?
Elephantiasis is transmitted through mosquitoes, so contact with an infected person will not spread the disease. Although it looks scary, it's not contagious.