The lymphatic filariasis is the generic name of filariasis caused by Bancroft’s filaria, Brugia malayi and Timori Brugia with prosopon parasitizing in the human lymphatic system. In China, there is only prevalence of Bancroft’s filarial and Brugia malayi. Filariasis was discovered quite early in China, and the clinical manifestation similar to lymph filariasis had been recorded in traditional Chinese medicine books. In the year 610 A.D., the book “Treatise on the Root Causes of Various Diseases” written by Yuanfang Chao, an imperial court physician of the Sui dynasty, stated the relative symptoms introduced were similar to centrifugal angileucitis, adenolymphitis, chyluria and hydrocele
in the modern medicine. Subsequently, the areas with high prevalence of the disease introduced in later medicine books mainly refer to the territories between Changkiang river and Huai river, the east of Changkiang river, Lingnan, which are similar to the results of modern filariasis investigation.

There had never been a report about the etiology of filariasis until the 19th century, and the endemic areas were limited to the areas along the coast and its’ surroundings. The serial studies on filariasis was conducted by Manson Bahr between 1872 and 1879 in Xiamen had the most pioneering significance. In this investigation of 1872, the hydroceles of many patients with scrotum elephantiasis were found to have microfilaria and a section of female worm. In 1877, Manson firstly described filariasis as transmitted by mosquito in Xiamen and found that microfilaria would grow and transform in the body of Culex pipiens fatigans. A study on the relationship between Bancroft’ s microfilaria and mosquito proposed that Culex pipiens fatigans was the alternate host of Bancroftian filariasis. Later, from the study on the rhythm of microfilaria appearing in the peripheral blood in 1879, it was concluded that Bancroft’s microfilaria in Xiamen had nocturnal periodicity.

Zong’en Li, a Chineses cholar, firstly carried out a survey of filariasis in 1925, and found that the prevalence of Bancroftian Filariasis in the north of Jiangsu province was quite common. The crowd infection rate of microfilaria was 5.9% (7/119) in Xuzhou and 15.9% (31/195) in Huaiyin. In 1926, through the analysis of the experimental infection of patients infected by Bancroftian filariasis, it was reported that Culex pipiens pallens was the transmission intermediary of Bancroft’ s filaria. Subsequently, in 1931 and 1933, the well-known parasitic disease specialist Lanzhou Feng reported the natural infection of mosquito infected by Bancroft’ s filaria in the Wusong region of Shanghai City and Xiamen City of Fujian province. Then, in 1933, Lanzhou Feng found Brug’ s microfilaria in a patient from Huzhou in Zhejiang province in Xiamen. This was the first report describing the epidemic of Brug’s filariasis in China. In the same year, the overall morphology of Bancroft’ s and Brug’s microfilaria were observed. The detailed morphology was described through different methods, and a map of systematic structural pattern was drawn,. These methods are still used in China and foreign countries. In 1934, through further study of the transmission intermediary of Filariasis, professor Lanzhou Feng confirmed that Anopheles sinensis and Mansonia uniformis were the transmission intermediary of Brug’s filariasis. Two years later he wrote an article about the growth of Brug’s microfilaria in the body of Anopheles sinensis. Meanwhile, through the study on the effect of mosquito spreading filariasis in the suburb of Shanghai City and Fuzhou City of Fujian province, professor Meiji Hu reported the experimental research on the susceptibility of common mosquito to Bancroft’s filaria and Brugia filaria during 1933˜1946.