I had no idea what this post was about until looking at the actual article. "Worming tablets"? Is that like an iPad that can go through wormholes? Or what?

We really are becoming a third world country.

Hookworms are ghastly little creatures. Tiny, parasitic, and frighteningly invasive, these wriggling hell-spawn consistently rank among leading causes of morbidity in underdeveloped nations, abound in regions of the world suffering from poor sanitation, and have been described by various epidemiologists as "the American murderer" and the "the great infection of mankind."

But there's a twist; it turns out hookworms are also great for treating food allergies. And irritable bowel syndrome. And asthma. How does an organism that affects over one billion people worldwide, a parasite widely regarded as one of the worst infectious scourges of our time, actually benefit us?

http://io9.com/5933615/why-doctors-are-treating-allergies-with-parasitic-worms

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.