Why Nairobians Will Soon Start Having Swollen Legs and Other Body Parts?
Have you ever walked in Nairobi Central Business down town streets and came across beggars with swollen legs and other body parts?
Most people translate the swelling to witchcraft which is not the case. People with swollen legs and other body parts are very likely to be suffering from elephantiasis, a disease that originates from mosquito bites.
Nairobi which boasts itself as the capital city of the republic of Kenya is largely infested with mosquitoes but residents never bother to use mosquito nets because the mosquitoes does not cause Malaria.
However, they don’t know that these mosquitoes can cause a more traumatizing disease commonly known as elephantiasis or lymphatic filariasis.
There three types of mosquito species and each species is a vector of a specific disease causing pathogen. Malaria parasites are transmitted by female anopheles’ mosquitoes, elephantiasis worms are transmitted by culex mosquitoes while yellow fever, Zika and dengue are transmitted by a species referred to as aedes.
In Nairobi, the environment only allows breeding of culex mosquitoes. This is why despite of the many mosquito bites, it’s very rare for one to suffer from Malaria.
Culex Mosquitoes which are responsible for transmitting Elephantiasis are highly favoured by Nairobi environment and they breed in large populations in the city. The mosquitoes do not however spread the disease because the parasite responsible for lymphatic filariasis is not available.
This does not mean that Nairobi will continue being Lymphatic filariasis free. Trooping of infected beggars from our neighboring countries keeps Nairobi just one step away from local elephantiasis infections. A culex mosquito will bite an infected beggar and then later on bite a healthy individual transmitting the disease. The circle of infection will continue and in no time we will start having local based infections in the city.
The influx of beggars infected with elephantiasis in the city should be a wakeup call to public health officials in the city else very soon we will start seeing people with large legs and other body organs allover in the city.
