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Who's Preparing Your Salad?
On Dec 26, 3:20*am, Strabo > wrote:
> Worms infect more poor Americans than thought > > Tue Dec 25, 2007 8:13pm EST > > By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor > > 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. > > He said the United States spent hundreds of millions of dollars to > defend against bio-terrorism threats like anthrax or smallpox or avian > flu, which were more a theoretical concern than a real threat at present. > > "And yet we have a devastating parasitic disease burden among the > American poor, right under our nose," Hotez said. > > He noted a recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and > Prevention, presented in November, found that almost 14 percent of the > U.S. population is infected with Toxocara roundworms, which dogs and > cats can pass to people. > > "Urban playgrounds in the United States have recently been shown to be a > particularly rich source of Toxocara eggs and inner-city children are at > high risk of acquiring the infection," Hotez wrote, adding that this > might be partly behind the rise in asthma cases in the country. Up to 23 > percent of urban black children may be infected, he said. > > "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. > > "Cysticercosis is another very serious parasitic worm infection ... > caused by the tapeworm Taenia solium, that results in seizures and other > neurological manifestations," Hotez wrote. > > He said up to 2,000 new cases of neurological disease caused by > tapeworms are diagnosed every year in the United States. More than 2 > percent of adult Latinos may be infected, and with 35 million Hispanics > in the United States, this could add up to tens of thousands of cases, > Hotez said. > > "In the hospitals of Los Angeles, California, neurocysticercosis > currently accounts for 10 percent of all seizures presenting to some > emergency departments," he wrote. > > "We need to begin erasing these horrific health disparities," Hotez > wrote in the paper, available online atwww.plosntds.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pntd.0000149. > > (Editing by Alan Elsner) > > © Reuters 2007 All rights reserved Enjoy diversity. ted |
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