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

[alarimer]

READ THIS STORY. This is happening here, in the supposed "richest country in the world." Bill Gates and Matt Damon and others are all about fixing problems in other places. Have they completely ignored the rampant poverty right here at home? Hookworm eradication was first attempted in the early 1900s by the Rockefellers. It was successful, mostly by digging deeper latrines. What they didn't count on was the advance of poverty later on. Now, instead of latrines, they simply pipe the effluent out in the woods, or the septic systems are inadequate and unaffordable. This story covers one county in Alabama, but I know there are plenty of others. Alabama, Mississipi, deep south Texas. All poor, all largely governed by asshole Republicans and ignored by Democrats. Liberals wring their hands about conditions in Africa or Afghanistan, yet ignore the poverty right under their noses, lumping all southerners under the "deplorable" title.

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

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.

The study, the first of its kind in modern times, was carried out by the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in conjunction with Alabama Center for Rural Enterprise (ACRE), a nonprofit group seeking to address the root causes of poverty. In a survey of people living in Lowndes County, an area with a long history of racial discrimination and inequality, it found that 34% tested positive for genetic traces of Necator americanus.

[vkkv]

1. It's the deep south, God will take care of everything.

Why would God have created hookworm if humans weren't supposed to use it?

I have little compassion for self-inflicted blindness and/or the willfully ignorant.

Seems that hookworm and other miseries are entitlements of deep south Republican-led states.
Just like Heaven is a beautiful, eternal entitlement.

Got it, now putting head back in deep south sand in "an area with a long history of racial discrimination and inequality" yeh, an don't ferget God!'
Uh, Hyuck !

[Igel]

2. Probably not as much of a problem as 80 years ago.

When they were (D) states.

It's not self-inflicted. To a large extent it's ignorance on the part of people who haven't been taught otherwise; the hookworm's been around for quite a while. To some extent it'll be the fault of the doctors who assume that the hookworm's been dealt with in the past and have forgotten about it.

Biggest and easiest thing to fix it: Don't walk in infested dirt in bare feet.

It's a poor person's parasite.

[alarimer]

4. I think you missed the point

Raw sewage should not be flowing into people's houses. Period. Wherever they live and whoever they are. There is a fix for this, expensive to be sure. But the government needs to mandate sewage treatment in every single county, with money from the feds if need be.

It is a public health emergency. It is also an environmental emergency, because it eventually ends up in streams and rivers.

[alarimer]

3. You would say that about primarily poor, black communities?

Because that is who is most affected, and profiled in the story. I'm pretty sure they won't be voting for Republicans.

This is a lousy attitude to have about the south or anywhere else. Such compassion. But even if you don't care about these people, think of the public health risks. Not just hookworm but other diseases (like E. Coli) and the environmental impact.

I'm mostly mad at the liberal celebrities who care what happens in other parts of the world a whole lot more than what happens right here at home. I am also mad a the Republicans shit-heels who run these states, but not so much at the voters, even the ignorant ones.

In the 1930's we had the Rural Electrification Administration to bring electricity to parts of the country that lacked it. We should have the same thing for waste treatment.

[vkkv]

5. Sorry, but the "lousy attitude" comes from the gov't leaders of these poor & unregulated places.

The leaders there do not seem to be asking for anyone's help on hookworm problems.

What they DO ASK FOR is campaign contributions, more deregulation, lower taxes for the wealthy and free stuff in an emergency.

You wrote: ""I'm mostly mad at the liberal celebrities who care what happens in other parts of the world a whole lot more than what happens right here at home. I am also mad a the Republicans shit-heels who run these states, but not so much at the voters, even the ignorant ones. """

1. Why should wealthy liberals give more money to the poor in the U.S. when they already pay a ton of taxes that SHOULD GO to solving problems in the U.S.? Those who give to foreign nations do so because it's even further unlikely that their 3rd world gov't can help them.

2. That's backwards, You SHOULD BE MORE MAD at these ignorant voters than at their GOP leaders. The GOP leaders are just doing what they do! Cheat, steal, sell their people out for tax breaks and deregulation and those voters STILL HAVEN'T grasped that?

Oh, right and then there's GOD.

Ever been to the backwoods of La? The shacks of the poor aren't just of Blacks, but of Whites.
I wasn't injecting any race in this argument - you did.

No, when your gov't leaders are screwed up - you vote them out unless you just don't care.. perhaps that is the answer?

Oh, right and then there's GOD.

[alarimer]

6. Oh, FFS.

Race was in there because of the county this particular study was done it. I'm sure poor whites also live there, there just aren't as many.

I refuse to BLAME the victims of a corrupt system for that corrupt system.

[alarimer]

7. And here I thought the real "liberals" on this site would be outraged at this.

There is deep poverty in this country that none of you seem to care about.

[LeftyMom]

8. I'm not shocked.

A family all died of carbon monoxide poisoning from an unsafe DIY heating unit up the road from my grandmother because theirs was one of the many rural communities in the west where it's not profitable for the utility companies to connect people.

That sounds like a story from the depression but it was the early 2000s. It'll happen in some other town this winter, I have no doubt.

Rural poverty in this country is real, and an an amazing number of people have no idea of the scope of the problem.