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Clinical and parasitological aspects of Bancroftian filariasis in Hale, northeast Tanzania.

OBJECTIVES
To document the endemicity characteristic of Bancroftian filariasis and to validate the effect of blood sampling time adjustment method on microfilarial intensity in relation to sex and age.


DESIGN
Community based cross sectional survey.


SETTING
Four rural communities in Hale area, Muheza district, northeast Tanzania.


SUBJECTS
A sample of 1,025 inhabitants aged one year and above.


MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Chronic clinical manifestations (elephantiasis and hydrocele), microfilarial prevalence as well as crude and time adjusted microfilarial geometric mean intensity (GMI).


RESULTS
Clinically, 6.9% of examined individuals had elephantiasis and 28.5% males aged 15 years and above had hydrocele. Prevalence of Wuchereria bancrofti infection was 31.8%, with females and males showing a microfilarial rate of 32.1% and 31.5% respectively. Both the clinical manifestations and microfilarial prevalence increased with age. The GMI among microfilarial positive individuals for the crude microfilaraemia was 1,122 or 1,175 mf/ml of blood after adjustment of the sample to the expected level if it had been collected at peak hour. In different age and sex groups, the adjusted microfilarial GMI was slightly higher but exhibited a similar pattern to crude microfilaraemia count suggesting that time of blood sampling has similar effect on each age and sex group.