Lymphatic filariasis as an indigenous illness: the local context of a global disease

Lymphatic filariasis (LF), also known as elephantiasis, is a chronic disease that is devastating for patients, both bodily and socially. Besides the unbearable chronic pain, disfigured limbs, and loss of livelihood, people living with LF are stigmatized and sometimes abandoned by family. To ease the burden of LF, which is known locally as gyepim or duba, the social and cultural aspects must be investigated in unison with the biomedical strategies already in place. As part of a multi-year pilot study in the Western Region of Ghana, funded by Canadian Institutes for Health Research, this article investigates the ways that traditional healers manage the stigma associated with LF. Interviews were conducted in the local languages to collect data. These were transcribed and translated to English for thematic and content analysis. Preliminary findings indicate that the traditional healers of the Western Region of Ghana regard the illness within an indigenous worldview, an ecology and history borne of the spiritual topography of Western Ghana. Healers, known as okomfoi, are conversant in the causes and outcomes of LF, and can offer varied diagnoses and cures for the disease within an indigenous framework. Additionally, they claim to do so without the need to antagonize allopathic practitioners. These insights demonstrate that thinking about LF as an indigenous ailment can offer new understandings of how we might eliminate this neglected tropical disease.