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Could a dose of hookworms provide a medication-free alternative to people with inflammatory bowel disease? The Malaghan Institute's team thinks it's possible. The feasibility study found hookworms were a safe and long-lasting treatment for participants with ulcerative colitis. In this randomized controlled trial, patients currently in remission from ulcerative colitis were infected with a controlled dose of hookworm larvae or given placebo, and followed up over twelve months. "We believe that the effect of hookworms may not be strong enough to push someone from an active disease state into disease remission. However, once someone is in remission hookworm could keep...

Credit: Fernandolive on Wikimedia Commons Could a dose of hookworms provide a medication-free alternative to people with inflammatory bowel disease? The Malaghan Institute's Hookworm Therapy team, who recently published the results from their year-long clinical study, think it's possible. Published in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, the feasibility study found that hookworms were a safe and long-lasting treatment for participants with ulcerative colitis—paving the way for wider clinical studies. The Malaghan Institute has been exploring the potential therapeutic benefits of human hookworms for patients suffering allergic and inflammatory disease for a number of years. This current study was the first of its...

[T]he teen was reportedly buried in sand with his friends while hanging out on Pompano Beach. A doctor allegedly told the family that the worms likely burrowed under his feet while he was buried, WMC reported. ... Hookworms are known as soil-transmitted parasite worms, and typically live in the small intestine. The eggs are transmitted through feces of an infected person, and the larvae can mature into a form that can penetrate through the skin of humans. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), hookworm infection is mainly acquired by walking barefoot on contaminated soil. While most...

A young Canadian couple who recently returned from the Dominican Republic is warning those who are planning to travel “somewhere tropical” about the risks of walking barefoot in the sand after coming home with “incredibly itchy” feet — which turned out to be parasites.

Hookworms hitched rides with nomads Ben Harder Horseback-riding herders known as Scythians or Scythes once traveled far and wide across Eurasia. Their dead have the parasites to prove it. FEEDING THE WORMS. Researchers found hookworm eggs in the remains of two nomads buried in Central Asia 2,300 years ago. Lancet A man and a woman who were buried separately about 2,300 years ago and recently excavated in Berel, Kazakhstan, were infected with hookworms during their lifetimes, researchers have determined. Hookworms weren't then and still aren't typically found in the steppes of central Asia. "This finding demonstrated that Scythes, a nomadic...