Filarial elephantiasis in French Polynesia: a study concerning the beliefs of 127 patients about the origin of their disease.

127 patients from Tahiti who were suffering from elephantiasis were interviewed about their opinion of the origin of their disease. Ancestral beliefs are still widely held even after 25 years of antifilarial campaigns which have resulted in a drastic decrease in endemicity with almost no clinical incidence. It is disappointing that the responsibility of mosquitoes is denied by a majority of patients. The explanations are to be found in the unusual evolution of this disease and in the small importance attached to sanitary education.