References Overview Hookworms are leading causes of maternal and child morbidity in the developing countries of the tropics and subtropics. In susceptible children hookworms cause intellectual, cognitive and growth retardation, as well as intrauterine growth retardation, prematurity and low birth weight among newborns born to infected mothers. In its 1993 World Development Report, the World Bank ranked hookworm and related intestinal helminth infections first as causes of disease burden in children aged 5 to 14 years. Chronic in nature and insidious in onset, the effects of hookworm infection take several years to become apparent. Nevertheless, in the poorest rural regions of Sub-Saharan Africa, Central America, South America, and Asia these nematode parasites cause severe anemia and malnutrition.
Hookworms are second only to malaria as parasitic causes of human misery and debility.
According to the WHO hookworm is a major contributor to impaired maternal-child health wherever rural poverty occurs in the tropics and subtropics. Despite decades of widespread attempts to control hookworm through the traditional methods of sanitation, health education, and use of shoes or other footwear, the global prevalence and intensity of hookworm is still overwhelming. Indeed, sanitation has been shown to have little impact on intestinal helminth transmission and prevalence. Anthelminthic drugs fail to control hookworm in highly endemic areas. In areas of high transmission, hookworm reinfection to the same parasite intensity occurs within several months after treatment.