Mass Treatment Targets Parasitic Infection

The Washington Post ^ | April 5, 2004 | David Brown

[neverdem]

Lymphatic Filariasis, Found in 80 Countries, Rarely Kills but Destroys Lives by Causing Deformities

One of the first things that Marc S. Micozzi did when he became director of the National Museum of Health and Medicine in the early 1990s was to move the elephantiasis leg.

Grotesquely swollen and covered with folds of thickened skin, the leg was probably the most notorious item displayed in what was once called the Army Medical Museum. For several generations of Americans, it was a vivid memory of the customary childhood trip to Washington. Even children who had only been told about it could picture the leg in their minds.

Micozzi, a physician and anthropologist who is now a professor at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, didn't take the specimen off the display area entirely. But he moved the oversized glass jar that held it into an elevated case so that any child younger than about 8 would have to be lifted by an adult to see it.

[neverdem]

Lymphatic filariasis, a parasitic infection, causes the deformity known as elephantiasis. (Photos From World Health Organization)

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