In a message dated 3/1/07 4:07:20 PM, [log in to unmask] writes:


> Let's not forget "the hookworm belt" in the south, bare feet picked 
> up hookworm eggs from the soil, it was terribly debilitating to both 
> blacks and whites who went barefoot and picked up the noxious 
> parasite. I wonder if the natives were afflicted with hookworms, they 
> don't seem to have been, since the earliest descriptions have them so 
> healthy and robust. Surely they went barefoot a lot. Was it a pest 
> introduced with European livestock and the penning of same in more 
> crowded conditions made the eggs more plentiful? It is also spread in 
> dogs and cat waste. Did the natives have a natural remedy they took 
> regularly that the Europeans were unaware of? In any case, it can 
> take a terrible toll on one's health.
> 
> Nancy
> 
> 

Dear Nancy:

About two years ago, there was an fascinating article in North and South 
magazine written by an MD who theorized that the death rate at Andersonville was 
augmented tremendously by a hookworm epidemic.   Some of the camp survivors 
photographs look stunningly similar to those of white southerners whose photos 
were taken in the late 1800s/early 1900s by southern health officials.   I am 
sorry I am blanking on the author's name but he had done an amazing amount of 
documented research to back up his theory.   He talked about how hookworm 
epidemics robbed infested people of energy, vitality and decreased their ability to 
be productive.   This may have also lead to early sterotypic ideas about poor 
white southerners by the rest of the country of being lazy and unproductive.'

Anita L. Henderson


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