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06/26/2008: "Expert says worms and parasites drain U.S. poor"

Diseases caused by worms and parasites are draining the health and energy of the poorest Americans, an expert said on Tuesday.

He said the diseases help to keep people mired in poverty, as infections may last years, decades or even lifetimes.

They include ascariasis, the most common human worm infection. It is caused by a parasitic worm that lives in the intestine, and infected just under 4 million people in 1974 according to the last survey, in the South and Appalachia.

"It's amazing what we tolerate," Hotez said. He noted the United States spends $1 billion a year preparing for outbreaks of diseases that have not occurred, including smallpox, anthrax and avian influenza.

[ Why aren't these diseases given greater priority? If a serious effort was made to combat these diseases it would be very expensive while also highlighting huge gulfs in society. That's why it's brushed under the carpet. This site doesn't advocate any need to treat this demograph anyway, since we stand against pluralism. ]

http://in.reuters.com/article/health/idINN2435994920080624?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0