Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Worms infect more poor Americans than thought
Reuters ^ | December 25, 2007 | Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

Posted on 12/25/2007 10:17:24 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet

Roundworms may infect close to a quarter of inner city black children, tapeworms are the leading cause of seizures among U.S. Hispanics and other parasitic diseases associated with poor countries are also affecting Americans, a U.S. expert said on Tuesday.

Recent studies show many of the poorest Americans living in the United States carry some of the same parasitic infections that affect the poor in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, said Dr. Peter Hotez, a tropical disease expert at George Washington University and editor-in-chief of the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases.

Writing in the journal, Hotez said these parasitic infections had been ignored by most health experts in the United States.

"I feel strongly that this is such an important health issue and yet because it only affects the poor it has been ignored," Hotez said via e-mail.

He said the United States spent hundreds of millions of dollars to defend against bio-terrorism threats like anthrax or smallpox or avian flu, which were more a theoretical concern than a real threat at present.

"And yet we have a devastating parasitic disease burden among the American poor, right under our nose," Hotez said.

He noted a recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, presented in November, found that almost 14 percent of the U.S. population is infected with Toxocara roundworms, which dogs and cats can pass to people.

"Urban playgrounds in the United States have recently been shown to be a particularly rich source of Toxocara eggs and inner-city children are at high risk of acquiring the infection," Hotez wrote, adding that this might be partly behind the rise in asthma cases in the country. Up to 23 percent of urban black children may be infected, he said.

"Because of its possible links to asthma, it would be important to determine whether covert toxocariasis is a basis for the rise of asthma among inner-city children in the northeastern United States," he added.

"Cysticercosis is another very serious parasitic worm infection ... caused by the tapeworm Taenia solium, that results in seizures and other neurological manifestations," Hotez wrote.

He said up to 2,000 new cases of neurological disease caused by tapeworms are diagnosed every year in the United States. More than 2 percent of adult Latinos may be infected, and with 35 million Hispanics in the United States, this could add up to tens of thousands of cases, Hotez said.

"In the hospitals of Los Angeles, California, neurocysticercosis currently accounts for 10 percent of all seizures presenting to some emergency departments," he wrote.

"We need to begin erasing these horrific health disparities," Hotez wrote in the paper, available online at www.plosntds.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pntd.0000149.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Government; US: California
KEYWORDS: asthma; blacks; cdc; disease; health; hispanics; illness; immigrantlist; immigration; innercity; medicine; parasites; poverty
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-67 next last
It makes my skin crawl thinking about it. Seems we're becoming a third world country, huh?
1 posted on 12/25/2007 10:17:25 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

Comment #2 Removed by Moderator

To: 2ndDivisionVet

Women, minorities hardest bit.


3 posted on 12/25/2007 10:21:04 PM PST by denydenydeny (Expel the priest and you don't inaugurate the age of reason, you get the witch doctor--Paul Johnson)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: VeniVidiVici

We could just deport the worms when we discover them.


4 posted on 12/25/2007 10:21:24 PM PST by Misterioso
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Misterioso
"We could just deport the worms when we discover them."

Won't Mike Huckabee be putting them in for free tuition?

5 posted on 12/25/2007 10:23:15 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet (Your "dirt" on Fred is about as persuasive as a Nancy Pelosi Veteran's Day Speech)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

“We need to begin erasing these horrific health disparities,” Hotez wrote

Agreed. immediate deportation is the only way.


6 posted on 12/25/2007 10:28:39 PM PST by enduserindy (I might be going to hell in a bucket but.......crap.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet
Makes my butt itch. They just need to give these people a few treatments of Castor oil.

"Because of its possible links to asthma, it would be important to determine whether covert toxocariasis is a basis for the rise of asthma among inner-city children in the northeastern United States," he added.

They'd be better off looking at the cockroach asthma link.

7 posted on 12/25/2007 10:34:24 PM PST by Razz Barry (Round'em up, send'em home.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet
What a bunch of crap.

With worms no less.

8 posted on 12/25/2007 10:46:16 PM PST by onedoug
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

robot chicken worms?
9 posted on 12/25/2007 10:58:04 PM PST by robomatik
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet
Up to 23 percent of urban black children may be infected with Toxocara eggs ... could add up to tens of thousands of cases of tapeworm

As usual there are no real data presented to assess the magnitude of the problem and only the extreme stats are used to gin up fear and funding. If 50,000, then we are talking about only one citizen in 6,000 having tapeworm.
10 posted on 12/25/2007 11:16:14 PM PST by yazd
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: denydenydeny

Let us face it. Bad things will happen to subgroups who think that hygiene is just an intellectual construct, though they will not phrase their feelings in quite this manner. Government cheese activists, coffee shop cogitators, performance artists, alternative lifestyle facilitators and birkenstockers feel that the verities are racist and so forgo their very health, mental or otherwise.


11 posted on 12/25/2007 11:23:23 PM PST by ashtanga
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: ashtanga
Thank you.

You can prevent becoming infected or reinfected with pinworms by:

* Bathing frequently
* Using clean underclothing, night clothes, and bed sheets
* Washing your hands routinely, particularly after using the bathroom

12 posted on 12/25/2007 11:30:48 PM PST by endthematrix (He was shouting 'Allah!' but I didn't hear that. It just sounded like a lot of crap to me.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

The worms crawl in
the worms crawl out
they crawl all over
the dead man’s snout
....


13 posted on 12/25/2007 11:46:44 PM PST by Atchafalaya
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Atchafalaya

OH god that brought back memories:

The worms crawl in
The worms crawl out
through your stomach
and out your mouth

They eat your eyes
they eat your nose
they even eat the ? right out of your nose

Wow childhood stuff dies hard doesn’t it?


14 posted on 12/25/2007 11:49:13 PM PST by greccogirl
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

Working my way through college, I was an orderly for a while, then a med tech. Back in the early 60’s I recall vividly watching a old lady sneeze a couple of worms out her nose. The scuttlebutt with this was that it (Strongyloides) was then usually associated with rural elderly farmer-people, and not necessarily the “poor.” BTW, I don’t think it’s significantly more prevalent now.


15 posted on 12/25/2007 11:52:16 PM PST by Rudder
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: greccogirl; Atchafalaya
The version I heard was

The worms crawl in,
The worms crawl out,
The worms play pinochle
On your snout.

Mature bunch, ain't we?

16 posted on 12/25/2007 11:54:48 PM PST by Slings and Arrows ("Bush is destroying the solar system:The ice caps on Mars are shrinking too." --Right_Wing_Madman)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: ashtanga

>> Bad things will happen to subgroups who think that hygiene is just an intellectual construct <<

More chlorine for the gene pool, please.


17 posted on 12/25/2007 11:58:08 PM PST by QBFimi ("When gunpowder speaks, beasts listen." - Jacobson)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Atchafalaya
Never laugh when a hearse goes by
'Cause that may mean you're the next to die
They wrap you in a bloody sheet
And throw you in a hole 'bout six feet deep

The worms go in, the worms go out
They eat your stomach and eyeballs out
And that is why I always cry
When a hearse goes by

-- as sung in Dallas-area public elementary schools c. 1973

18 posted on 12/26/2007 12:20:20 AM PST by B-Chan (Catholic. Monarchist. Texan. Any questions?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet
I KNEW IT!

It was a typo, Al, go home!

It's Global WORMING, not warming!

19 posted on 12/26/2007 12:31:14 AM PST by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: enduserindy

[Agreed. immediate deportation is the only way.]

You can’t deport 20,000,000 worms.


20 posted on 12/26/2007 1:07:44 AM PST by dbacks (Taglines for sale or rent.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-67 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson