Worms infect more poor Americans than thought

[Herman Munster]

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

WASHINGTON (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.

[Uben]

1. Dupe

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3114155

[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.

[Tesha]

3. Yet another "third world feature" brought to America.

Soon, maybe, we can have River Blindness and a huge
resurgance of Malaria, Yellow Fever, Typhoid, and Cholera.

Tesha

[Perry Logan]

4. I'm sure parasites are ubiquitous amongst Americans of all social classes.

[cap]

5. the food that they are eating is contaminated..

watch out for cleanliness standards ... let me guess, lack of government enforcement of food safety codes.

Let's hear it for deregulation!