Brugia malayi
| Brugia malayi | |
|---|---|
 |
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| B. malayi, blood smear, Giemsa stain. | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Nematoda |
| Class: | Secernentea |
| Order: | Spirurida |
| Family: | Onchocercidae |
| Genus: | Brugia |
| Species: | B. malayi |
| Binomial name | |
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Brugia malayi S.L. Brug, 1927 |
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| Brugia malayi | |
|---|---|
| Classification and external resources | |
| Specialty | infectious disease |
| ICD-10 | B74.1 |
| ICD-9-CM | 125.1 |
| DiseasesDB | 31729 |
Brugia malayi is a nematode (roundworm), one of the three causative agents of lymphatic filariasis in humans. Lymphatic filariasis, also known as elephantiasis, is a condition characterized by swelling of the lower limbs. The two other filarial causes of lymphatic filariasis are Wuchereria bancrofti and Brugia timori, which both differ from B. malayi morphologically, symptomatically, and in geographical extent.
B. malayi is transmitted by aedes mosquitoes and is restricted to South and South East Asia. It is one of the tropical diseases targeted for elimination by the year 2020 by the World Health Organization, which has spurred vaccine and drug development, as well as new methods of vector control.
Lichtenstein and Brug first recognized B. malayi as a distinct pathogen in 1927 by the Dutch Parasitologist working in Indonesia, Steffen Lambert Brug (1879–1946) (who is commonly known in the Scientific Word as S.L. Brug). They reported the occurrence of a species of human filariae in North Sumatra that was both physiologically and morphologically distinct from the W. bancrofti microfilariae commonly found in Jakarta and named the pathogen Filaria malayi. However, despite epidemiological studies identifying Filaria malayi in India, Sri Lanka, China, North Vietnam, and Malaysia in the 1930s, Lichtenstein and Brug's hypothesis was not accepted until the 1940s, when Rao and Mapelstone identified two adult worms in India.
Based on the similarities with W. bancrofti, Rao and Mapelstone proposed to call the parasite Wuchereria malayi In 1960, however, Buckley proposed to divide the old genus Wuchereria, into two genera, Wuchereria and Brugia and renamed Filaria malayi as Brugia malayi. Wuchereria contains W. bancrofti, which so far has only been found to infect humans, and the Brugia genus contains B. malayi, which infects humans and animals, as well as other zoonotic species.
In 1957, two subspecies of human infecting B. malayi were discovered by Turner and Edeson in Malaysia based on the observation of different patterns of microfilaria periodicity. Periodicity refers to a pronounced peak in microfilariae count during a 24‑hour interval when microfilariae are present and detectable in the circulating blood. The basis for this phenomenon remains largely unknown.
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