All the following diseases are chronic except _______.

In elephantiasis, the person’s limbs, i.e. feet, legs, arms and hands are highly swollen due to accumulation of water in the cells. The person looks bulky and his limbs are swollen. It is compared to elephant’s limbs so the disease is termed “elephantiasis”. In ascariasis, the worm named ascaris infects the stomach and intestine, thereby making the person weak because they feed on the food material present in the blood of the person (host). Similarly, tuberculosis is caused due to bacteria and in this disease, lungs and respiratory systems are affected. In this, mucus begins to collect in lungs gradually leading to inefficient gaseous exchange, frequent cough and at later stages, bleeding occurs in the throat. Thus elephantiasis, ascariasis and tuberculosis are caused due to infectious agents and they take a long time inside our body as they are treated slowly. They leave behind long term health effects which make the body weak. Thus, they are chronic. But influenza, i.e. common cold lasts for few days. It affects us severely, but it does not make us weak later on. Hence, it is an acute disease.