By EUGENE STRANSKY, M.D., AND FLORENCIO N. QuINTos, M.D. H OOKWORM anemia has been known since the construction of the Gotthard tunnel in Switzerland in the years 1876-80. Perroncito’ observed that many Italian workers developed a severe and at times fatal anemia, with hookworm infestation. In the following decades hookworm anemia was called miner’s anemia because of its occurrence in deep humi...

INTRODUCTION Malaria and hookworm infections are common in sub-Saharan Africa and they increase the prevalence of anaemia in pregnancy with resultant poor pregnancy outcomes. This study was carried out to assess the impact of Plasmodium falciparum and hookworm infections on the frequency of anaemia among pregnant women in two rural communities in Enugu, South East Nigeria. METHODS A cross sec...

BACKGROUND Soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infections are among the most prevalent neglected tropical diseases (NTD) worldwide. Since the publication of the WHO road map to combat NTD in 2012, there has been a renewed commitment to control STH. In this study, we analysed the geographical distribution and effect of community type on prevalence of hookworm, Trichuris and Ascaris in south Asia and...

The spatial epidemiology of intestinal nematodes in Uganda was investigated using generalized additive models and geostatistical methods. The prevalence of Ascaris lumbricoides and Trichuris trichiura was unevenly distributed in the country with prevalence greatest in southwest Uganda whereas hookworm was more homogeneously distributed. A. lumbricoides and T. Trichiura prevalence were nonlinear...

Although hookworm is highly prevalent in the Solomon Islands, the species involved are unknown. We initiated this study in response to finding Ancylostoma ceylanicum hookworm in a peacekeeper in Australia who had returned from the Solomon Islands. Kato-Katz fecal surveys performed in 2013 and 2014 in 2 village groups in East Malaita, Solomon Islands, identified hookworm-positive samples. These ...

Sensitive diagnostic tools are crucial for an accurate assessment of helminth infections in low-endemicity areas. We examined stool samples from Tanzanian individuals and compared the diagnostic accuracy of a real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with the FLOTAC technique and the Kato-Katz method for hookworm and the Baermann method for Strongyloides stercoralis detection. Only FLOTAC had a...

For a long time it has been known that hookworm infection causes loss of physical and mental efficiency in the persons affected. The degree of this loss has been supposed to depend upon the number of worms harboured in the system. Recent work on the subject, however, shows that there is a wide difference of opinion amongst workers. For instance Strong (1916) investigating the effects of hookwor...

Hookworms infect over 400 million people, stunting and impoverishing them –3. Sequencing hookworm genomes and finding which genes they express during infection should help in devising new drugs or vaccines against hookworms4,5. Unlike other hookworms, Ancylostoma ceylanicum infects both humans and other mammals, providing a laboratory model for hookworm disease6,7. We determined an A. ceylanicu...