WORMS

Thomas Riggins

Nicholas D. Kristof has an interesting article on today's (July 2) Times op ed page: "Attack of the Worms." Here are some statistics to keep in mind whenever anyone starts talking about the success of "globalization."

600 million people have hookworm.

82%of children in the Congo have hookworm leading to 70% being anemic.

Worms kill 130,000 people a year.

500,000 a year are estimated to die from "easily preventable and treatable" diseases such as worms, elephantiasis and trachoma.

Millions of children get enough food but are undernourished and sickly because of the worms they have.

The cheapest way to raise school attendance for third world children is simply to deworm them.

It costs 50 cents to deworm a child in Africa.

The rich capitalist nations of the west, as usual, are not giving adequate aid to eliminate these problems.

Lets hear it for TINA! A better world is possible.