Filariasis a Silent Killer

Health is Wealth is the perfect proverb for every body . If you have sound health then you can do any thing in your life. If you don't have a good health, you will suffer and you're near and dear ones will also suffer. You will not be able to work properly, you will have a poor family life, your children will not get the help and company from you because of your illness. In short you will have a miserable life, if this illness persists continuously. This is a true story of a middle aged man called "Mohan".

The story goes back to the childhood of Mohan when he was 10 years old and was born very healthily, but when ever he exerts himself physically, he used to fall sick, so one day his mother took young Mohan to near by doctor. Mohan was having high fever with red patch in his groin with pain. When the doctor examined him he was intimated that he is suffering from a disease called Filariasis. Filariasis is spread by a mosquito bite, and the disease is wide spread in the eastern part of India that to in the coastal belt of Orissa.

Mohan on the advice of doctor took anti filarisis tablet called benoside. This gave him relief after one week. The whole week Mohan could not attend his school and he was left behind in his studies. This was the first attack. Filarisis is such a disease which will not take life but the patients will slowly come in the clutches of the disease and on each attack the parasite will start expanding its influence on the patient. Mohan as any other young boy used to enjoy playing taking adventurous journeys on his bicycle, take part in games etc. But each time he puts physical exertion he used to get the attack of the disease.

Now Mohan has become a young lad of 16 years and started going to collage , he along with his friends go to Cave temples which is about 15 km away from his town by bicycle .Cave temples are on a hill top one has to climb the hill in order to see it. He along with friends enjoyed whole day in the hill locks and returned home totally exhausted, again Mohan had an attack of Filarisis. This time again he suffers for 10 days or so but his leg got slightly swollen, this disease is such dreadful that on every new attack it leaves an ever lasting impact on the patient. When a person falls sick by Filariasis the mother parasite produces thousands of Micro Filarial and the person suffers from high fever nearly 104 to 105'F along with shivering and red patch on the groin area. And pain on legs or the infected part. When you give antifilarial medicines you can kill the micro filarial germs but the mother parasite does not die. Whole problem with this disease is that you cannot kill the mother parasite, it is said that the mother filarial parasite dies only with the death of the patient. Only way is to suppress the filarial parasite to further breeding by giving very harmful toxins which may directly effect the patient. The mother parasite dies in own time and when it dies it goes into your lymphatic channel and blocks the lymph nodes, which helps you to drain lymphatic fluid. With this blockage it leaves ever lasting impact on the effected part and slowly that effected part gets swollen, by the accumulation of lymphatic fluid. On each Filarial attack this infected part gets swollen by & the fluid transforms into fibrous and the swelling becomes irreversible. The elasticity of the skin decreases affecting easy openings of the infected part. This way the effected part starts disfiguring.
Slowly Mohan's live is also effected he now cannot play nor do exercise as any teenager. Mohan completes his education and joins in a traveling firm, and he also gets married. Mohan goes to honeymoon to hill station and both Mohan and his wife enjoys their honeymoon but while on returning by train Mohan gets high fiver and an attack of Filarial. The attack was so severe that Mohan could not walk, he has severe pain in his legs . His wife along with the help of a potter somehow brings Mohan to the taxi stand from the train. It was a really terrible situation his young bride just married few days before with lot of dreams, when experience's such situation, she under goes a violent, disastrous and heart breaking trauma which no one can understand. That totally changed Mohan's life.

Time changes and Mohan gets frequent attacks and each attacks the diseases leaves some residue swelling on the legs. Both the legs of Mohan become heavy enlarged and in medical terminology it is turned out to be what is called "Elephantiasis".

In the middle age Mohan started looking old, unable to do the duties of husband, nor able to move with his family. He remains aloof . Young Mohan who was a symbol of energy and full of life, turns to sick, old, ugly and broken. Such is the impact of Filaria, a Silent Killer.