Developing World’s Parasites, Disease Hit US

Parasitic infections and other diseases usually associated with the developing world are cropping up with alarming frequency among US poor, especially in states along the US-Mexico border, the rural South and in Appalachia, according to researchers. Government and private researchers are just beginning to assess the toll of the infections, which are a significant cause of heart disease, seizures and congenital birth defects among black and Hispanic populations. One obstacle is that the diseases, long thought to be an overseas problem, are only briefly discussed in most US medical school classes and textbooks, so many physicians don’t recognise them