<p>‘New trial with antibiotics brings hope to elephantiasis sufferers’ declared a recent press release from a prominent university in the UK. Researchers reported that lymphoedema stage (but not limb circumference or the incidence of acute inflammatory episodes) had been significantly reduced in eight patients from a filariasis-endemic area of Ghana one year after a six-week course of the antibiotic doxycycline (Debrah et al, 2006). The substantial publicity that surrounded this announcement (BBC, 2006), described as a ‘breakthrough’ by one of the investigators, reflects how deeply people with lymphoedema and their carers yearn for a definitive ‘cure.’</p>
