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ORPHA:2404

Loiasis

low confidenceDisorder

Publications

1,581

Trials

10

Interventional, condition-specific

Researchers

1,071

Distinct authors in sample

Gene link

—

Readiness

2/6

Stages with a signal

Clinical definition (Orphanet)

Loiasis is a form of filariasis, caused by the parasitic worm Loa loa, endemic to the forest and savannah regions of Central and Western Africa. Loiasis may either be asymptomatic or manifest as a large, transient area of localized, non-erythematous subcutaneous edema (Calabar swellings), adult worm migration through the sub-conjunctiva (''African eye worm'') and pruritus. Generalized itching, hives, muscle pains, arthralgias, fatigue, and adult worms visibly migrating under the surface of the skin may be observed. Severe complications such as have been reported in highly infected individuals receiving ivermectin during mass drug administration programs for the control of onchocerciasis and lymphatic filariasis.

How rare: <1 / 1 000 000 — fewer than one in a million. In a city the size of Kolkata, that might mean on the order of fifteen people.

Orphanet entry

Cross-references

Joined from Mondo / Orphanet. MeSH labels may enter searches; UMLS / OMIM / NCIT are stored for reference.

Research stages

Trial readiness signals

Where this condition sits on an open-data research pipeline — not how close a treatment is, and not medical advice. Empty stages often mean “not in these databases under this Mondo ID,” not “impossible.”

2/6 stages with a signal

An interventional trial matched this condition name on ClinicalTrials.gov — see trials below.

  1. Gene identifiedNot found

    No GenCC disease–gene assertion in this build

  2. LiteraturePresent

    1,581 matched papers (697 in last 10 years) Source

  3. Phenotype characterisedNot found

    No HPO disease–phenotype associations via Monarch for these Mondo IDs

  4. Animal modelNot found

    No Alliance genotype “model of” associations via Monarch for these Mondo IDs

  5. Orphan designationNot found

    No FDA or EMA orphan-drug designation matched this disease via UMLS or preferred name Source

  6. Interventional trialPresent

    10 matched on ClinicalTrials.gov (3 recruiting in sample)

Biology

Genes and phenotypes

Gene–disease validity from GenCC, plus phenotypes and animal models joined from Monarch Initiative via Mondo ID — not a clinical diagnosis aid.

Do we know what causes it?

Not yet — the cause hasn't been pinned down in GenCC.

No strong gene–disease assertion joined for this Orphanet entity.

Phenotypes (Monarch / HPO)

None returned for this Mondo ID. That often means “not linked under this ID,” not “no clinical features.”

Animal models (Monarch / Alliance)

None returned for this Mondo ID. Empty here is not proof that no model organism work exists under another name or gene.

Monarch fetch 2026-07-29

Therapies

Designations, candidates, and chemicals

FDA OOPD and EMA orphan designations, Open Targets clinical candidates, and CTD chemical associations via MyDisease.info. These never change the interventional-trial headline.

Orphan designation (FDA · EMA)

No designation matched this disease via UMLS or preferred name on the FDA OOPD mirror or EMA orphan register. Absence here is not proof that none exists under another wording.

Open Targets candidates

4

Drugs / clinical candidates · MONDO_0016566

CTD chemicals (MyDisease.info)

2 associated chemicals. Therapeutic evidence is listed first when present — not a treatment recommendation.

  • Diethylcarbamazine · therapeutic
  • Ivermectin · therapeutic

MyDisease.info · MONDO:0016566

Literature

Is anyone studying this?

1,581

1,581 papers have been published on this condition. That is a real research literature — still far smaller than common diseases (breast cancer: over 700,000 papers). Median papers in the last 10 years for a rare disease in this dataset (publications denominator n=3967) is 59.

1,581 papers since the earliest indexed year in this search — median last-10-year count for a rare disease in this dataset is 59 (publications denominator n=3967).

697 in the last 10 years · low confidence

Phrase hits: 1,581 · MeSH hits: 0

Open Europe PMC search

Who's working on it?

1,071

Distinct author names in 200 sampled papers — named people below.

Who's working on it?

People publishing on this condition (sampled Europe PMC records). Affiliation is the most recent found in that sample.

  1. 01
    Ramharter M26 papers · 2026

    Department of Tropical Medicine, Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine & I. Dep. of Medicine University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  2. 02
    Boussinesq M25 papers · 2026

    Unité Mixte Internationale 233 TransVIHMI, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), INSERM U1175, University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  3. 03
    Chesnais CB23 papers · 2026

    Research Institute for Development, University of Montpellier, Montpellier 34394, France.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  4. 04
    Campillo JT21 papers · 2026

    UMI 233 TransVIHMI, Université de Montpellier, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), INSERM Unité 1175, Montpellier, Franceand.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  5. 05
    Pion SDS18 papers · 2026

    Unité Mixte Internationale 233 TransVIHMI, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), INSERM U1175, University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  6. 06
    Missamou F16 papers · 2026

    Programme National de Lutte contre l'Onchocercose, Direction de l'Épidémiologie et de la Lutte contre la Maladie, Ministère de la Santé et de la Population, Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  7. 07
    Mombo-Ngoma G16 papers · 2026

    Department of Tropical Medicine, Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine & I. Dep. of Medicine University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  8. 08
    Adegnika AA15 papers · 2025

    Centre de Recherches Médicales de Lambaréné, Lambaréné, Gabon.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  9. 09
    Hemilembolo MC14 papers · 2025

    TransVIHMI, Université de Montpellier, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), INSERM Unité 1175, Montpellier, France.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  10. 10
    Veletzky L13 papers · 2026

    Department of Tropical Medicine, Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine & I. Dep. of Medicine University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.

    Papers in Europe PMC

Clinical research

Is a treatment being tested?

10

interventional trials for this specific condition

10 interventional trials matched this specific condition name; 3 currently recruiting in our sample.

Data as of 11 September 2026

10 interventional trials — more than 77.2% of diseases in the trials denominator have none at all (5501 of 7126; this disease is at the 92.5th percentile).

low confidence · 92.5th percentile (trials denominator)

Recruiting interventional trials

From the matched ClinicalTrials.gov set

10 interventional trials matched after quoted-phrase search and title/condition post-filter.

Observational and natural-history studies

2 observational studies match this condition. These do not test a treatment and are not counted in the interventional-trial headline, but they are genuine research: natural-history work often defines the endpoints needed for a future rare-disease trial, and families may be able to enroll.

None of the matched observational studies is currently listed as recruiting.

Open the complete matched search on ClinicalTrials.gov

Other registries (secondary)

Broader net from EU CTIS, ISRCTN, and ICTRP when available — deduped against ClinicalTrials.gov IDs already counted above. Dual-model LLM relevance gates what we keep. These rows are not added to the interventional headline.

raw 6 · after dedupe 6 · already on CT.gov 0 · kept 0 · parent 0 · uncertain 6 · dropped 0 · fetched 2026-07-29

Source notes: ictrp: Error: ICTRP public search unavailable (WHO portal is SPA-only; SOAP needs partnership). Tried: https://apps.who.int/tri

No secondary-registry studies passed dual-model relevance for this condition name (after dedupe).

Uncertain / not reviewed (6)

Where to find support

Condition-specific patient organisations, when Orphanet lists them, are on the disease’s Orphanet page. We also link umbrella groups that support undiagnosed and ultra-rare families.

Orphanet entry for Loiasis — check Associations / patient organisations on that page.

India — NPRD

Last verified 2026-07-26

This ORPHAcode is not on our curated NPRD list (direct or Mondo-parent match). That does not decide clinical eligibility; families in India should ask a notified Centre of Excellence about current coverage.

Hand-curated for this project. ORPHAcode mappings are best-effort and may be incomplete or imprecise for umbrella categories. Parent (Mondo) matches mean the policy lists a broader category — confirm eligibility with a Centre of Excellence. Financial entitlements summarised from public policy statements and may change. This is not official government guidance.

How we counted this

Europe PMC query (preferred label + any corrected label + Orphanet and Mondo exact synonyms, stoplisted; unioned with resolved MeSH labels when available). UMLS / OMIM / NCIT cross-references are stored on the overview but are not added to the query string.

"Loiasis"

Run this search on Europe PMC

ClinicalTrials.gov query (quoted phrases + MeSH via query.cond, plus recall-expansion terms when used):

"Loiasis"

Interventional trials matched via: phrase (mesh = registered under a MeSH descriptor no name phrase would catch; recall-expansion = gene / selected parent terms used only for trials).

Study-type breakdown: 10 interventional · 2 observational · 0 expanded access. Only interventional studies enter the trial headline.

Query health: ok — strategies attempted: phrase; with hits: phrase

Run this search on ClinicalTrials.gov

Confidence reasoning

  • Preferred label is short or not clearly distinctive
  • No synonyms dropped by stoplist
  • No label/synonym collisions with other diseases in this corpus
  • Publication count (1581) is implausibly high for prevalence class "<1 / 1 000 000" — treat as possible over-matching, not a measure of research intensity

Ingested 2026-07-26T20:05:54.243Z