Little things that count in standards of opportunity

PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases Issue Image Vol. 1(3) December 2007 (Public Library of Science)

Shown are 1,659 adult Schistosoma mansoni worms obtained by live surgical perfusion of an 18-year-old patient. In this issue of PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Daniel G. Colley and W. Evan Secor present an agenda for schistosomiasis research (see Colley et al., e32) and ask readers to add comments and discussions to their article, so that “the agenda will serve as one focal point for interactive interchange among the schistosomiasis community, and thus provide a foundation for true collaborations within and across the spectrum of research.”

Image Credit: Daniel G. Colley

Yahoo News lead me to this article in the peer reviewed professional magazine Neglected Tropical Diseases section.

Dr. Hotez says “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.

Also subsequently to this article that addresses the issues in WTO GATS agreements ignoring biomedical consequences of engineering projects, and especially water and sanitation standards. Comorbidity becomes a household word.