Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-sxzjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T20:10:51.663Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Mosquito-borne infections in Fiji: I. Filariasis in northern Fiji: epidemiological evidence regarding factors influencing the prevalence of microfilaraemia of Wuchereria bancrofti infections*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 May 2009

J. U. Mataika ,
B. C. Dando ,
G. F. S. Spears  and
F. N. Macnamara
J. U. Mataika
Affiliation:
Medical Department, Government of Fiji, Suva, Fiji
B. C. Dando
Affiliation:
Medical Department, Government of Fiji, Suva, Fiji
G. F. S. Spears
Affiliation:
Medical School, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
F. N. Macnamara
Affiliation:
Medical School, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

A survey of microfilaraemia among the population of Vanua Levu, Taveuni and Koro islands in northern Fiji was conducted in 1968 and 1969 as a prelude to a campaign of mass treatment with diethylcarbamazine.

The prevalences of microfilaraemia were found in the more moist conditions of Taveuni and Koro and on the windward southern side of Vanua Levu to be higher than on the drier northern side of Vanua Levu. On both sides of Vanua Levu prevalences were lower inland than near the coast.

Under apparently similar environmental conditions those of Fijian ethnic origin exhibited a higher prevalence of microfilaraemia than that shown by Indians. This ethnic difference and a difference between the prevalences in male and female Fijians are considered to be due more to higher rates of recovery from microfilaraemia in Indians and Fijian women than to diminished exposure to mosquitoes. Mathematical models have been used as an aid to the interpretation of the data, and, where appropriate, comparison has been made with the prevalence of antibodies to dengue, an arbovirus having the same vectors.

Household infections were analysed by computer techniques. Infections in large households were not proportionately higher than in small households, indicating that transmission was not intrafamilial. The clustering of infections within households, though present, was not marked. Among the occupants of outlying settlements the prevalence of microfilaraemia was relatively low indicating a lower risk of infection due to isolation.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Hygiene , Volume 69 , Issue 2 , June 1971 , pp. 273 - 286
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1971

References

REFERENCES

Beye, H. K., Kessel, J. F., Huels, J., Thooris, G. & Bambridge, B. (1963). Nouvelles recherches sur l'importance, les manifestations cliniques, et la lutte centre la filariose à Tahiti, Oceanie Francaise. Bulletin de la Société de Pathologie Exotique 46, 144–63.Google Scholar
Burnett, G. F. (1960 a). Filariasis research in Fiji 1957–1959. Part I. Epidemiology. Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 63, 153–62.Google Scholar
Burnett, G. F. (1960 b). Filariasis research in Fiji 1957–1959. Part III. Experiments in control of adult mosquitoes. Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 63, 208–15.Google ScholarPubMed
Burnett, G. F. & Mataika, J. U. (1964). Mass administration of diethylcarbamazine citrate in preventing transmission of aperiodic human filariasis. II. Results of a blood survey made four years after drug administration. Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 58, 545–55.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ciferri, F. E., Siliga, N., Long, G. & Kessel, J. F. (1969). Filariasis control programme in American Samoa. American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 18, 369–78.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Crosskey, R. W., Crosskey, M. E. & Macnamara, F. N. (1959). A quantitative survey of onchocerciasis in persons under twenty years of age in an endemic area of Northern Nigeria, with a consideration of the epidemiology based on a mathematical hypothesis. Annals of Tropical Medicine and Parasitology 53, 10–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hairston, N. G. & Jachowski, L. A. (1968). Analysis of the Wuchereria bancrofti population in the people of American Samoa. Bulletin of the World Health Organization 38, 29–59.Google Scholar
Haley, A. J. (1958). Sex difference in the resistance of hamsters to infection with the rat nematode, Nippostrongylus muris. Experimental Parasitology 7, 338–48.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hayashi, S. (1962). A mathematical analysis on the epidemiology of Bancroftian and Malayan filariasis in Japan. Japanese Journal of Experimental Medicine 32, 13–43.Google ScholarPubMed
Iyengar, M. O. T. (1965). Epidemiology of filariasis in the South Pacific. South Pacific Commission. Technical Paper, No. 148.Google Scholar
Jachowski, L. A. & Otto, G. F. (1955). Filariasis in American Samoa. IV. Prevalence of microfilaraemia in the human population. American Journal of Hygiene 61, 334–48.Google Scholar
Jordan, P. (1955). Observations on Wuchereria bancrofti and Acanthocheilonema perstans in Tanganyika. Transaction of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 49, 460–71.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Laigret, J., Kessel, J. F., Bambridge, B. & Adams, H. (1966). Onze ans de chimioprophylaxie par le diethylcarbamazine de la filariose lymphatique apériodique à Tahiti. Bulletin of the World Health Organization 34, 925–38.Google Scholar
McCarthy, D. D. (1959). Filariasis in the Cook Islands. New Zealand Medical Journal 58, 738–48.Google Scholar
McCarthy, D. D. & Fitzgerald, N. W. (1955). Researches in Western Samoa. Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 49, 82–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McCarthy, D. D. & Fitzgerald, N. W. (1956). Habit, habitat and hyperfilariation in the epidemiology of filariasis in Western Samoa. Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 50, 58–71.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Maguire, T., Macnamara, F. N., Miles, J. A. R., Spears, G. F. S. & Mataika, J. U. (1971). Mosquito-borne infections in Fiji. II. Arthropod-borne virus infections. Journal of Hygiene 69, 287–96.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Marshall, C. L. & Yasukawa, K. (1966). Control of Bancroftian filariasis in the Ryukyu islands: Preliminary results of mass administration of diethylcarbamazine. American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 15, 934–42.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mataika, J. U., Dando, B. C., Spears, G. F. S. & Macnamara, F. N. (1971). Mosquito-borne infections in Fiji. III. Filariasis in northern Fiji. Epidemiological evidence regarding the mechanisms of pathogenesis. Journal of Hygiene 69, 297–306.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Muench, H. (1959). Catalytic Models in Epidemiology. Cambridge Mass., Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nelson, S. & Cruikshank, J. M. (1955). Filariasis in Fiji 1944–1955. Medical Department, Suva, Fiji.Google Scholar
Omori, N. (1965). On the familial infection of Bancroftian filariasis due to house mosquitoes. Endemic Diseases Bulletin of Nagasaki University 7, 29–37.Google Scholar
Rosen, L., Rosebook, L. E., Sweet, B. H. & Sabin, A. B. (1954). The transmission of dengue by Aëdes polynesiensis Marks. American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 3, 878–82.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sasa, M., Mitsui, G. & Sato, K. (1963). Studies on epidemiology and control of filariasis. Microfilarial surveys in the Amani islands, South Japan. Japanese Journal of Experimental Medicine 33, 47–67.Google Scholar
Symes, C. B. (1960). Observations on the epidemiology of filariasis in Fiji. Part I. Field studies. Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 63, 1–14.Google Scholar
W.H.O. Expert Committee on Filariasis (1967). Wuchereria and Brugia infections. Second report. World Health Organization Technical Report Series, No. 359.Google Scholar
Zwart, F. A. A. G. (1968). Report on the census of the population (1966). Govt. of Fiji, Council Paper No. 9. 1968.Google Scholar