Elephantiasis in Haiti

 

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Elephantiasis in Haiti

This morning when I got off the full tap-tap in front of the hospital, many people were crossing the street, some women were buying and selling things on the corner, and a couple of men were fixing flat tires. Children were also holding hands and heading to school in their fresh uniforms. It was a typical morning in Port au Prince. 

At the very back of the tap-tap, standing in the street, was a 60-year-old appearing man who had dropped his pants in a very innocent fashion to show all of the people in the vicinity his huge scrotum that was hanging down in front of him. His face was absolutely pathetic as he was searching everyone’s eyes. He was simply looking for some spare change from anyone so he could eat. People stared briefly at him, but then continued on with what they were doing. No one offered him anything.

This man’s serious problem is called filariasis and is caused by a parasite spread by mosquitoes. The parasite has different stages and causes the lymphatic system to become blocked. Severe swelling can occur in dependent areas of the body. When the anatomy becomes very swollen and distorted the condition is called elephantiasis.

There are 120 million cases of filariasis worldwide with at least 40 million having severe deformities as did the poor man in the street. Haiti has its fair share of elephantiasis.

The photo above is the right leg of a lady in the Cite Soleil clinic today. She has had this swollen right leg for over 25 years. Medication will not help her now other than to treat bacterial or fungal infections that may superinfect her damaged extremity. Can you imagine limping around the fetid streets of Soleil with a like this?

The dirty water canals in Soleil provide a good place for mosquitoes to breed and carry the parasite to infect humans and make their lives miserable.