How many Einsteins have we lost to hookworm?
- Matilda Ziegler
- 3 days ago
- 2 min read
Hookworm, a disease that is, according to an article published on the National Institutes of Health’s website entitled “Human Hookworm Infection in the 21st Century,” “intimately linked to poverty and economic underdevelopment,” is prevalent chiefly “throughout much of sub-Saharan Africa as well as in South China, the Pacific and Southeast Asia.”
Hookworms ravage the body of their victim, typically entering through the feet. Once hookworms are in the body, they cause a host of issues, including protein loss, intestinal bleeding, adverse maternal-fetal consequences, chronic anemia and even lower school performance and work productivity.
According to an article published on the National Institutes of Health’s website entitled “ron Deficiency in Infancy and Neurocognitive and Educational Outcomes in Young Adulthood,” anemia in early childhood, such as that caused by hookworm, leads to issues not only in childhood but in early adulthood. Iron deficiency was associated with lower Intelligence Quotient (IQ) scores, as well as an increase in inattention and lower educational attainment through young adulthood.
According to an article published on the National Institutes of Health’s website entitled “Institutional Care and Iron Deficiency Increase ADHD Symptomology and Lower IQ 2.5-5 Years Post-adoption,” internationally adopted children who were suffering from anemia at the time of their adoption had an IQ score that was 13.2 points lower than that of their non-anemic adopted counterparts.
A reduction in IQ by over 13 points in anemic children when compared to non-anemic children is not insignificant. It can mean the difference between intellectual disability and simply having an intelligence that is slightly below average. It can also mean the difference between true genius and above average intelligence. How many Einsteins have we lost to hookworm and the anemia that stems from it?
Hookworm is not merely a disease present in other nations – it plagues Lowndes County, Alabama, a county less than 60 miles away from Troy. According to a 2021 NPR article entitled “Why It Can Be Harder To Fight Hookworms In Alabama Than In Argentina,” 35% of Lowndes County’s predominately Black residents were infected with hookworm.
This is easily preventable by better infrastructure and modern sanitation. Hookworm spreads via infected fecal matter, and when residents of impoverished areas such as Lowndes County have non-improved septic systems, and are thus exposed to human feces, they have a much higher risk of infection.
It is a travesty that, in the United States, Americans are suffering from such a life-altering and easily-preventable disease as hookworm, and the subsequent protein loss, intestinal bleeding, adverse maternal-fetal consequences and IQ-lowering anemia.
Society likes to focus on the children who grow up and make it out of situations they never should have been in in the first place. However, in order to confront the issue head-on, we need to focus on what we as a society have lost due to hookworm, and the pain that the lack of sanitation present in parts of America has caused via hookworm infection.
How many geniuses have we lost to an easily preventable disease? How many residents of Lowndes County, or similarly impacted regions of the world, such as Argentina, have lost their health and their opportunities due to hookworm-related complications? How many Einsteins have we lost to hookworm?