IT Summertime and the living is easy, so the song goes. But it can turn hard in a hurry if, by going barefoot, you happen to pick up an infectious disease. Although rare, tetanus and hookworm can occur. Tetanus happens when the skin is punctured by a sharp, rusty object contaminated with this bacteria. Left untreated, it can cause serious neurological damage.
Hookworm is a parasite that lives in the gut and causes anemia.
It can enter the bloodstream through a bare foot. Children are at particular risk, but Johns Hopkins infectious diseases professor Dr. Bob Bollinger says hookworm is not especially serious. It's hard to spot, actually. In some places it's so common that people wouldn't even recognize it. The best way to recognize it is anemia in children.