Sri Lanka’s Anti-Filariasis Campaign is warning of the risk of an island-wide spread of Brugia malayi, a parasitic worm carried by mosquitoes that causes lymphatic filariasis — the disease commonly known as elephantiasis — in both humans and animals.
Anti-Filariasis Campaign Director Dr. Prasanna Serasinghe told a press conference on Thursday that seven patients infected with the parasite had been detected in the country over the past five months, NewsFirst reported. If the parasite is not properly controlled, there is a risk of it spreading across the island, he warned.
Brugia malayi is a distinct species from Wuchereria bancrofti, the parasite responsible for most historical lymphatic filariasis cases in Sri Lanka. The local zoonotic strain of Brugia malayi circulates between animal reservoirs — particularly cats — and humans via Mansonia mosquitoes that breed in water bodies covered with aquatic plants. Wider environmental exposure has historically required separate vector control to break transmission.
Dr. Serasinghe’s warning follows the campaign’s May briefing on 68 filariasis cases recorded in 2025, half of which were among Indian workers employed in Sri Lanka. The current concern focuses on the Brugia malayi parasite specifically and the prospect of locally driven spread, distinct from the imported-case profile seen last year.
Sri Lanka was certified by the World Health Organization in 2016 as having eliminated lymphatic filariasis as a public health problem, but the Anti-Filariasis Campaign has continued post-validation surveillance to guard against reintroduction. The country is targeting full elimination of the disease by 2030.
The warning lands as the Health Ministry is already running an intensified three-day dengue control drive across 74 Medical Officer of Health divisions from June 8 to 10, amid wider concern that flooding and stagnant water from Cyclone Ditwah and continuing rainfall are sustaining mosquito breeding nationwide.
