Onchocerciasis in Guatemala

III. Daytime Periodicity of Microfilariae in Skin

Robert I. Anderson Department of Epidemiology, The Johns Hopkins University, School of Hygiene and Public Health, 615 North Wolfe Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21205

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Louis E. Fazen Department of Epidemiology, The Johns Hopkins University, School of Hygiene and Public Health, 615 North Wolfe Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21205

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Alfred A. Buck Department of Epidemiology, The Johns Hopkins University, School of Hygiene and Public Health, 615 North Wolfe Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21205

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DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4269/ajtmh.1975.24.62
Volume/Issue:
Volume 24: Issue 1
Page(s):
62–65
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Periodicity of microfilariae of Onchocerca volvulus in the skin was not believed to exist until investigators in Africa recently demonstrated diurnal periodicity. Interestingly, this maximal density of microfilariae in the skin has been shown to coincide with the peak biting time of the Simulium vector. The current study was performed as part of other studies in Guatemala. Maximal density of microfilariae in the skin was at 1000 hours or shortly thereafter. This peak is earlier than reported in Africa. The most active feeding period of Simulium ochraceum, believed to be the principal vector in Guatemala, had been previously shown to be from 0800 to 1000 hours. The current report lends support to other findings indicating that Onchocerca volvulus microfilariae have a diurnal periodicity. In addition, the occurrence of peak vector biting time at the same time as maximal numbers of microfilariae in the skin strengthens a hypothesis that these synchronous cycles have a biological significance.

Author Notes

Copyright:
Copyright © 1975, by The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 1975
Accepted:
15 Apr 1974
|
Published Online:
Jan 1975
Cover The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
Print ISSN:
0002-9637

Expert Committee on Hepatitis

First Report. World Health Organization Technical Report Series No. 62 (Available also in French). 26 pp. Geneva, W.H.O., Palais des Nations. March, 1953. Price 1/6, $0.20, Fr. fr. 65.-; Sw. fr. 0.80

Parasitic Infections of Man

by Harry Most, M.D., Editor. Symposium No. 4 of the Section on Microbiology, New York Academy of Medicine. 220 pp., cloth. New York, Columbia University Press, 1951. $4.50

Author:
G. F. Otto

Immunology

by Noble Pierce Sherwood. Ph.D., M.D., Professor of Bacteriology, University of Kansas—3rd Edition, 731 pp., illustrated, cloth. St. Louis: The C. V. Mosby Co., 1951. $8.00

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