Diethylcarbamazine-medicated salt is effective in controlling lymphatic filariasis while maintaining its coverage at 90% in the community for six months.Different trials were made to use the known drug at its maximum capacity in absence of new drugs. In a study from India, it was shown that a formulation of albendazole had better anti-filarial efficacy than albendazole itself.In 2003, the common antibiotic doxycycline was suggested for treating elephantiasis. Filarial parasites have symbiotic bacteria in the genus Wolbachia, which live inside the worm and seem to play a major role in both its reproduction and the development of the disease. This drug has shown signs of inhibiting the reproduction of the bacteria, further inducing sterility. Clinical trials in June 2005 by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine reported an eight-week course almost eliminated microfilaraemia. Society and culture
Research teams
In 2015 William C. Campbell and Satoshi Ōmura were co-awarded half of that years Nobel prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of the drug avermectin, which, in the further developed form ivermectin, has decreased the occurrence of lymphatic filariasis. Prospects for elimination
Filarial diseases in humans offer prospects for elimination by means of vermicidal treatment. If the human link in the chain of infection can be broken, then notionally the disease could be wiped out in a season. In practice it is not quite so simple, and there are complications in that multiple species overlap in certain regions and double infections are common.
This method of treatment can be problematic in that the Ilizarov might need to be applied both during early childhood (to keep the femur from being extremely short at the onset of growth) and after puberty (to match leg lengths after growth has ended). The clear benefit of this approach, however, is that no prosthetics are needed and at the conclusion of surgical procedures the patient will not be biologically or anatomically different from a person born without PFFD.In some cases the patient may not request treatment and instead elect to use a wheelchair or other aids to assist mobility. References


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