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turbinetree

(24,631 posts)
Tue Sep 5, 2017, 01:44 PM Sep 2017

Hookworm, a disease of extreme poverty, is thriving in the US south. Why?

Children playing feet away from open pools of raw sewage; drinking water pumped beside cracked pipes of untreated waste; human faeces flushed back into kitchen sinks and bathtubs whenever the rains come; people testing positive for hookworm, an intestinal parasite that thrives on extreme poverty.


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These are the findings of a new study into endemic tropical diseases, not in places usually associated with them in the developing world of sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, but in a corner of the richest nation on Earth: Alabama.

Scientists in Houston, Texas, have lifted the lid on one of America’s darkest and deepest secrets: that hidden beneath fabulous wealth, the US tolerates poverty-related illness at levels comparable to the world’s poorest countries. More than one in three people sampled in a low-income area of Alabama tested positive for traces of hookworm, a gastrointestinal parasite that was thought to have been eradicated from the US decades ago.

The long-awaited findings, revealed by the Guardian for the first time, are a wake-up call for the world’s only superpower as it grapples with growing inequality. Donald Trump has promised to “Make America Great Again” and tackle the nation’s crumbling infrastructure, but he has said very little about enduring chronic poverty, particularly in the southern states.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/sep/05/hookworm-lowndes-county-alabama-water-waste-treatment-poverty


This is outrageous...............


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Hookworm, a disease of extreme poverty, is thriving in the US south. Why? (Original Post) turbinetree Sep 2017 OP
This country has a much larger problem with "bugs" "worms" or Doreen Sep 2017 #1
jefferson beauregard country nt msongs Sep 2017 #2
This is what happens when you cut public services and attack government workers. Willie Pep Sep 2017 #3
Make Alabama Great Again - go back to... 1925: dalton99a Sep 2017 #4
Why? Because outside the enclaves of the top 20%, we are a third-world nation davekriss Sep 2017 #5
Because areas of the US are in fact third world n2doc Sep 2017 #6
K&R Solly Mack Sep 2017 #7
Ben Carson is on it ProudLib72 Sep 2017 #8

Doreen

(11,686 posts)
1. This country has a much larger problem with "bugs" "worms" or
Tue Sep 5, 2017, 02:24 PM
Sep 2017

microscopic creatures than many know. If you have ever seen the TV program "The Monsters Inside Me" you know that we have a lot of those problem right here in the U.S.A. It is first the failure of proper cleaning and care for the environment and second bad health care.

Willie Pep

(841 posts)
3. This is what happens when you cut public services and attack government workers.
Tue Sep 5, 2017, 04:21 PM
Sep 2017

There is so much that needs to be fixed in this country but we can't get things done because the Republicans have made "tax and spend liberal" such a powerful concept that even people who desperately need these services vote for politicians who cut them or eliminate them.

I don't mind paying taxes to live in a modern, first-world country where I have clean drinking water, nice roads and strong public safety services.

n2doc

(47,953 posts)
6. Because areas of the US are in fact third world
Tue Sep 5, 2017, 05:25 PM
Sep 2017

And folks like the erects and the Koch's are working hard to make the rest of the US follow suit.

ProudLib72

(17,984 posts)
8. Ben Carson is on it
Tue Sep 5, 2017, 05:31 PM
Sep 2017

"Hookworms are a state of mind."

Yeah, you tell them Benny. I'm sure these people decided to be poor so they could contract hookworms.

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