Want to fix US inequality? Start with worming tablets.

[alarimer]

4. In 1910, an estimated 40% of people in the south were infected with hookworm

Due to lack or proper sanitation in desperately poor areas. Hookworms are common in warmer climates. Apparently these infections could lead to other complications, like anemia, that in combination with lack of food or general impoverishment, meant that kids, especially, had trouble learning. It seriously affected the economy.

There was a hookworm eradication program that involved building outhouses and providing treatment and it worked.

It isn't as if we haven't done this before. We eliminated yellow fever and dengue fever as well. Now, dengue fever is on the increase again, due to the spread of mosquito vectors. Some of these disease are becoming more prevalent due to climate change as the organisms move further north.