Elephantiasis is a symptom of a variety of diseases, where parts of a person's body swell to massive proportions.
Some conditions that have this symptom include:
- Elephantiasis nostras, due to longstanding chronic lymphangitis
- Elephantiasis tropica or lymphatic filariasis, caused by a number of parasitic worms, particularly Wuchereria bancrofti. More than 120 million people, mostly in Africa and Southeast Asia, are affected.
- Nonfilarial elephantiasis or podoconiosis, an immune disease affecting the lymph vessels
- Elephantiasis, Grade 3 lymphedema which may occur in people with breast cancer.
- Genital elephantiasis, end result of lymphogranuloma venereum
- Proteus syndrome, the genetic disorder of the so-called Elephant Man
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