Prevalence of Lymphatic Filariasis and Economic Impact of Chronic Forms of the Disease in a Group of Weavers in the Godavari Districts of Andhra Pradesh

A case-control study was conducted during July–December 2012 to know the prevalence of Lymphatic Filariasis (LF) and economic impact of chronic forms of LF in a group of weavers above 18 years of age from six endemic villages in Godavari districts of Andhra Pradesh, India. There was a high disease rate of 6.8 percent with a very low 0.3 per cent microfilaria rate (mf rate) in the weaver community of East Godavari district. An opposite finding was observed in West Godavari district with a relatively low disease rate of 2.8% and high mf rate of 2.5%. The limitation of this finding is that it cannot be applied to the general population as the subjects comprised of only adults above 18 years of age. Nevertheless, high mf rate in West Godavari district even in adults does not auger well with proper implementation of Mass Drug Administration (MDA) in the district where 9 rounds of MDA have already been administered. It was found that on an average, a person suffering from filariasis earned 75–78% less than healthy persons towards weaving. Mostly patients could not do demanding work like weaving and preferred to do light tasks, such as spinning, starching, dyeing etc. Even for such light work, a person suffering from chronic LF earned 40% less than healthy persons. Patients suffering from stage 3 lymphedema (Elephantiasis) were not doing any weaving work and therefore they had no income from weaving. The study implied that LF posed considerable economic burden on the patient and his family.