Greetings to all;
Today i was going through social media and found out about a disease that affects most African countries. Actually it was the first time i heard of or even saw something like that. This lead me to do more investigation about this disease. Its called **Loa Loa. **
The term Loa loa is simply translated to the word Worm Worm. In this case, the worm isn’t found in the stomach or sore areas. This worm finds its way up to the eye. I mean it literally lives in the eye. And can be seen from close contact. Like you can visible see the worm moving around the infected persons eye. Its sounds gross right? Wait till you see some samples of infected people.
One might ask how is this transmitted? Well the loa loa disease is transmitted when an infected fly bites a person. Through the bite, the loa loa larvae is passed on through the bite wound. Within a few days, the larvae begins to grow into an adult in subcutaneous tissues. These newly developed adults can live up to 17years and would continue to produce larvae that will travel in the blood stream when the host is active and it hides at the lungs of the host when the host is sleeping. Flies can also carry the disease when they bite an infected person’s wound because flies ingest microfilariae when they bite a person.
People infected by the Loa loa disease rarely show any signs of symptoms. Imagine falling sick without even being able to detect it untill it fully manifests. Some manifestations of this terrible illness is the worm in the eye can cause itching, light sensitivity, pains in the eye, the main symptom is the viable movement of the worm in the eye. In rare cases, the worm cab be seen moving under the skin.
Infected person’s can remove the worm from their eyes through surgery, however the there are other means to solve this problem this includes consuming diethylcarbamazine (DEC) that will kill the worms in your body. If DEC drug isn’t proving effect, another drug called Albendazole is introduced and is believed to kill all the adult worms.
There is no known vaccines for this dieseas. However experts advise that if you find your self in areas that are known to have the disease you should take DEC once a week to help in reducing your risk of infection. They also advise the use of insect repellent to drive insects and flies away. There is a lot to learn about this disease i would leave some reference links for you to follow and learn more. Thank you
Loa loa is indeed very dangerous parasite which we shouldn't joke with. The vector being flies is my worry since flies are all around feeding on our food. By the way if we maintain personal hygiene it can suppress their spread.
Yeah that’s true, personal hygiene can help in reducing rate at which they spread.
This is my first time hearing of this Loa Loa parasite. The fact you have to wait for the disease to fully manifest itself is scary. Hopefully, it’s vaccine can be worked on with immediate effect.
It’s a very scary parasite, i was also very disturbed when I first saw it. I can’t imagine what it would be like to have a worm crawling in your skin let alone in your eyes.
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