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Vol. 14. Issue 2.
Pages 125-128 (March - April 2010)
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Vol. 14. Issue 2.
Pages 125-128 (March - April 2010)
Original article
Open Access
Assessment of family and neighbors of an individual infected with Wuchereria bancrofti from a non-endemic area in the city of Maceió, Brazil
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Anderson B. Leite, Ana R.V. de Lima, Renata B. Leite, Rafael V. Santos, Johnathan E.L. Gonçalves, Eliana M.M. Rocha, Gilberto Fontes
Corresponding author
gilberto.fontes@pq.cnpq.br

Correspondence to: Instituto de Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde, Universidade Federal de Alagoas/ICBS – UFAL Praça Afrânio Jorge, s/n – Prado Maceió – AL – Brazil CEP: 57010-020. Phone: 55 82 32141704, Fax: 55 82 32212501.
Institute of Biological Sciences and Health, Universidade Federal de Alagoas
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Abstract

The family and neighbors of a patient infected with W. bancrofti microfilariae were assessed aiming to evaluate the occurrence of cases of lymphatic filariasis in a non-endemic area in the city of Maceió, in the Brazilian state of Alagoas. The patient had previously lived in an endemic focus; however, he has been living in an area where the parasite has never been detected for the past ten years. Female ingurgitated Culex quinquefasciatus mosquitoes captured in the houses of the microfilaremic individual and of his neighbors in the non-endemic region were also examined by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique. The thick blood smear examination, blood membrane filtration, and rapid immunochromatography (antigen search) revealed no infected individuals in the family of the microfilaremic individual. All 334 neighbors undergoing the thick blood smear examination were negative for W. bancrofti microfilariae. In 478 ingurgitated C. quinquefasciatus mosquitoes examined by PCR, no W. bancrofti DNA was detected. The microfilaremic individual had a microfilaremia considered very low according to WHO standards (4 microfilariae/mL of blood). As the vectorial infection depends on microfilaremia, the patient's low parasite load did not determine the contamination of other individuals in the area. Our data have shown that the long-term residence of the microfilaremic individual in the non-endemic region was not sufficient to start a new transmission focus of lymphatic filariasis in Maceió.

Keywords:
Wuchereria bancrofti
lymphatic filariasis
epidemiology
Culex
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The Brazilian Journal of Infectious Diseases
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