John M. Clymer Albert B. Sabin Vaccine Institute Tel. H. R. Shepherd Albert B. Sabin Vaccine Institute Tel. APCO Associates Worldwide Tel. The funds will be used for the development of a vaccine to prevent hookworm infection. Approximately one-quarter of the world's population is infected with hookworm.
Hookworms infect about one billion people, mostly in developing countries.
They stunt children's growth, sap victims' energy and make them anemic. A vaccine is the only realistic way to protect all people from this parasite. In some villages, more than one half of the population is infected. Hotez frequently visits remote areas of China to conduct research as a visiting professor at the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine's Institute of Parasitic Disease and the Peking Union Medical College. The parasite is estimated to be similarly prevalent in India, and is a major health problem in certain Latin American countries, as well.