Worldly Worms!

[tara]

In September 1992 the Associated Press carried the story, Worldly Worms! Traveling Parasites Leave Latin America to Afflict Big Apple. Four orthodox Jews in New York City had been mysteriously stricken with seizures. CAT scans showed pork tapeworm cysts in the brain, a most startling revelation, considering these individuals never ate pork due to their religious dietary laws. A Center for Disease Control formal investigation discovered the single common denominator in every case, a housekeeper originally from Central America where pork tape worm infection is relatively common. The investigator theorized that the housekeepers unknowingly carried the tapeworm eggs and infected the Jewish families by contaminating their food.

The shocking part is: this is not an isolated incident. Parasites are not a problem reserved for developing countries or the tropics.

Parasitic infections are a major cause of illness in the United States, says Dr. Theodore Nash of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (Bethesda, Maryland) in a recent press release.

Actually parasites have been making headlines in this country for a while. In fact, they first surfaced in the 1990s in connection with the Desert Storm veterans. An article entitled Gulf War Parasite Halts Troop Blood Drive in USA Today (November 1991) stated that 540,000 American troops returning from Desert Storm were told not to donate blood because of the incidence of the parasitic disease Leishmaniasis, spread by desert sand flies. Diarrhea, abdominal pain, and fever are symptoms of this infectious disease.

The word parasite again made headlines in 1993 when people in Milwaukee drank city water that was contaminated with a microscopic organism called Crytosporidium. As a result, 400,000 people came down with severe stomach ailments and diarrhea.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, Cryptosporidium is currently the leading cause of waterborne illness in the United States.

http://www.atlantisrising.com/backis...tdisease.shtml