Mataracy
VIP Contributor
This disease is a kind if filariasis common in many part of Africa . The infection is caused by tiny worms that are carried from person to person by small, humpbacked files or gnats known as black flies ( simulids) which breed in fast running water. The worms are injected into a person when an infected fly bites him.
Signs:
- Several months after s black fly bites and the worms enter the body lumps begin to form under the skin, usually around the hips or chest wall, occasionally on the head and often in deeper places where they cannot be felt.
This numps ( which are painless, and 2 to 3 cm in size) contain the full -grown worms in pair , and the produce baby worms which spread extensively in the skin and deeper tissues.
Even before these lumps can be felt, their are four early signs to ask about or look for:
(1) Itching, on the trunk, or wherever the baby worms are spreading.
(2) Pains in the back, shoulder or hip- joints, or general pains all over'. Many patients first come for help because of backache and rheumatic pain.
(3) Enlargement of the lymph nodes in one or both sides of the groin..
Enlargement:
Early treatment can prevent blindness. This should begin at the stage of backache , and enlarged glands in the groin. One should not wait for eye signs to appear. Treatment then is more difficult.
- Injections of suramin are used to kill the adult worms.
- Phenobarbital may be used to help sleep during the first few days if treatment.
- Early surgical removal of the lumps lowers the number of worms.
- Avoid sleeping out of doors, especially in the daytime , which is when the flies usually bite.
- Cooperate with programmes for the control of black flies. This may require clearing vegetation from the banks of fast- running streams.
Early treatment prevents blindness and also helps limit the spread of the disease.
Signs:
- Several months after s black fly bites and the worms enter the body lumps begin to form under the skin, usually around the hips or chest wall, occasionally on the head and often in deeper places where they cannot be felt.
This numps ( which are painless, and 2 to 3 cm in size) contain the full -grown worms in pair , and the produce baby worms which spread extensively in the skin and deeper tissues.
Even before these lumps can be felt, their are four early signs to ask about or look for:
(1) Itching, on the trunk, or wherever the baby worms are spreading.
(2) Pains in the back, shoulder or hip- joints, or general pains all over'. Many patients first come for help because of backache and rheumatic pain.
(3) Enlargement of the lymph nodes in one or both sides of the groin..
Enlargement:
Early treatment can prevent blindness. This should begin at the stage of backache , and enlarged glands in the groin. One should not wait for eye signs to appear. Treatment then is more difficult.
- Injections of suramin are used to kill the adult worms.
- Phenobarbital may be used to help sleep during the first few days if treatment.
- Early surgical removal of the lumps lowers the number of worms.
- Avoid sleeping out of doors, especially in the daytime , which is when the flies usually bite.
- Cooperate with programmes for the control of black flies. This may require clearing vegetation from the banks of fast- running streams.
Early treatment prevents blindness and also helps limit the spread of the disease.
