Worms infect more poor Americans than thought

Reuters ^ | December 25, 2007 | Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

[2ndDivisionVet]

It makes my skin crawl thinking about it. Seems we're becoming a third world country, huh?

[denydenydeny]

Women, minorities hardest bit.

[Misterioso]

We could just deport the worms when we discover them.

[2ndDivisionVet]

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

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

[enduserindy]

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

Agreed. immediate deportation is the only way.

[Razz Barry]

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.

[onedoug]

What a bunch of crap.

With worms no less.

[robomatik]

robot chicken worms?

[yazd]

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.

[ashtanga]

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.

[endthematrix]

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

[Atchafalaya]

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

[greccogirl]

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?

[Rudder]

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.

[Slings and Arrows]

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?

[QBFimi]

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

More chlorine for the gene pool, please.

[B-Chan]

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

[Smokin' Joe]

I KNEW IT!

It was a typo, Al, go home!

It's Global WORMING, not warming!

[dbacks]

[Agreed. immediate deportation is the only way.]

You can’t deport 20,000,000 worms.