The average American may never heard of hookworm, but elsewhere it's another story.
Hookworm is one of the most prevalent infections in humans.
The parasite infects at least a billion people worldwide, causing anemia and malnutrition, and retarding children's intellectual and physical growth. You can imagine the devastation if half the people in your hometown were chronically ill. That's the situation in some villages in rural China. Adults' exhaustion and pain is compounded as they see their children's lives stunted by the disease. The parasite is particularly dangerous to pregnant women.