Worms infect more poor Americans than thought

[RamboLiberal]

Source: Reuters

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.



Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSN2526656920071226?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews&rpc=22&sp=true

---

IMHO we have definitely become third-world and have not been moving forward as we should! Another reason we need good single-payer health care. Plus better education, urban funding, and more!

[izzie]

1. I can believe it.

Once lived in a county in US that is classed as the richest county. Had kids get them twice, a type of worms, and the doctor said the school was loaded with cases but I could not talk to the school about them. They just kept telling me I was wrong and it was just my kids, even though the doctor said he was treating other kids from the same school and other school. Bet there were other types of worms around also. We moved soon after and we never had them after that. I was very careful. We were never poor. The county was right out side of DC. In a poor county with kids not going to doctors it must be rally bad if that is how it is treated in a rich place, with lots of money and doctors. Kids were not really ill but not really feeling very well. It only lasted a short time so I do not know how they would have been if they had had them for months and months. Really run down I would think.

[flashl]

2. Its more than worms ...

Wasted People: Environmental Racism, a 20-Year Saga

Back in 1987, the environmental racism movement won its first significant victory. Twenty years later, a cadre of Black and progressive scientists are calibrating the methodical harm that has been done to Black communities by a society that treats people of color as wasted human flesh. The Bush administration has done everything in its power to silence this growing environmental-racism resistance, cutting off funding to programs that could uncover crimes against whole communities perched on the cusp of disaster - chemical death.

Its more than a 'health care' issue.

[mzmolly]

23. Should be called environmental classism.

Thanks for the info, however.

[Name removed]

3. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[wellst0nev0ter]

4. If These Types Of Epidemics Don't Start Affecting Rich White Folks

Obviously they don't make this country into a third-world nation :sarcasm:

[NoodleyAppendage]

5. neurocystercosis - WORMS IN YOUR BRAIN!

Of all the parasitic pleasantries, neurocystercosis is probably the worst (well...maybe ameobic encephalopathy is worse but infinitely more rare). Cook that pork very well, people!

http://www.housemd-guide.com/house-med/2006/10/episode-101-pilot.html

[Supersedeas]

28. thanks for sharing that

[fascisthunter]

6. Kick! I knew a Kid in my old Neighborhood who DIED from Worms

He was treated too late. I was too young to really understand why, but was told by him after he had found out and was very sick, that he had worms. A month later he died due to complications.

[mzmolly]

24. It seems to me there should be more regular screening?

:shrug:

[pattmarty]

7. I see in your comment at the end, that you plan on leaving the US soon.

[RamboLiberal]

10. No I plan on doing what I can to get people in to office

who can start changing this. Amazing that one can't even point out that in many areas of this country in the inner cities and the rural areas we haven't improved all that much since the days of the Great Depression or the 60's War on Poverty and much of that is due the Repukes like Reagan, Bush 41 & 43, Limbaugh and his ilk and this age of Repuke greed.

And yeah I've seen third world countries and there are areas of this country that remind me of that. In most of the countries there are the very wealthy in their enclaves and in many cases wealthy tourist destinations, a struggling lower to middle-class and the very poor who cannot find a way out. How is that so different than what is happening to much of this country?

Katrina should've been the wake-up call that we are going third world in much of this country and the people in D.C. don't give a damn!

I thought the "love it or leave it" crowd were on another forum. Oh and I do love my country and that is why it makes me sad to see it let its people down while we pour $$$$$$ in to the black holes of Iraq, Halliburton, KBR, military industrial complex and the pockets of the crooks in D.C.

[Trajan]

17. That's a stretch ...

I see nothing there that even remotely suggests the OP wishes to 'leave the US' ...

On the contrary: the OP desires to FIX the defective system that is in place, and enjoy a good and decent health care system, eventually ...

We aren't going anywhere .... Get used to it ....

[mzmolly]

26. I see from your comment you'd like to remain in denial?

eom

[jwirr]

8. This should be easy to treat without adding stigma to the "poor"

areas: Doctors should simply include the tests in all counties and treat it where found. It could even be done in the schools like the first polio vaccines were. Back then it was not unusual to have universal health services for infectious diseases treated in the schools. I remember being in line for the polio vaccination.

[mzmolly]

25. I agree. Screening tests should be a regular part of check ups.

eom

[slackmaster]

9. Roundworms were common in children where my mom grew up

In rural Iowa in the 1930s.

[and-justice-for-all]

11. Thats sad to read...

unacceptable. And it is all for the richest 2 to 3%.

[sentelle]

12. third world?

ehem... try fourth world... most third world nations have single payer health care, and as a result don't get worms...

[truthisfreedom]

13. and don't forget head lice!

The newest strain is resistant to treatment so buy a Robicomb to be sure!

[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[mzmolly]

27. EEK. I know you're trying to be helpful but....

Black people do not have 'greasy' hair. And like other 'people' they can get headlice. It is true that lice are not drawn to dirty hair or dirty people however.

[diane in sf]

19. I got em traveling in India 10 years ago--best nontoxic way to get rid of them

is to oil up your head with palm, olive, whatever till they suffocate and all the nits hatch and suffocate. Takes a week or so and makes your hair real shiny when you are done.

[trashcanistanista]

15. This was recognized back in the 1960's

during the War on Poverty. The solution .... Get all the kids shoes. Kids did not have shoes and were running around barefoot and contracting worms from the soil, particularly in the rural south. Once they gave out shoes the worm problem was erradicated. This article is one of many indications of how far this country has fallen.

[ingac70]

16. Roundworm ...

If people took proper care of their pets, this infection being passed onto to children could be avoided.

[loser_user]

18. Reading the symptoms I think I have them

But not for sure, I dislike self-diagnosing myself.

[wildbilln864]

20. Welcome to the DU user.

:hi:

[BreweryYardRat]

21. Okay, that's disgusting in so many ways, I'm not even going to list them.

That's an atrocity bordering on an institutionalized hate crime.

[MountainLaurel]

22. I remember my cousins having worms in the late 70s

I wasn't exactly sure what worms were (I would have been about 7 or 8), but I do remember that they weren't your normal kind of illness and they had something to do with them living in the country and not having good water. (They had well water and it was OK to drink, but for some reason, maybe water pressure, they couldn't flush the toilet except with a bucket of water. That only happened once every few days, in a house with six people. You can imagine.) My mom had to take them all to the doctor, because my uncle had the one vehicle.

[Acadia Blue]

29. In Mexico worms, and other paracites are very common