A host of parasitic diseases commonly thought to have been eradicated in the U.S. are infecting a large number of mostly poor, predominantly Black populations in the Mississippi Delta region. Recent public health research has identified these disregarded diseases and placed a spotlight on decades of neglect of public infrastructure that has left these communities vulnerable to debilitating conditions. The issues are highlighted in a new piece in The Guardian.
Study indicates widespread parasitic infections found among Delta children
A study published in 2023 in the American Journal of Human Biology confirmed that 38% of the 24 children tested by researchers in a predominantly Black rural community in the Mississippi Delta had intestinal parasitic infections. The researchers from the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs and Washington University in St. Louis, who conducted the testing for their paper in 2019, note that these types of “infections most often occur in areas with inadequate sanitation infrastructure and limited access to medical and veterinary care,” and note that such infections “can cause nutritional deficiencies, stunted development, intestinal blockages, and death.” The researchers warn that such parasitic infections “often go undiagnosed due to limited awareness based on the incorrect assumption that these infections only affect low- and middle-income countries.”
Decades of neglect for poor, Black residents
The results of this study match with the experiences of Mississippi Delta residents, who have seen their children suffer from chronic ailments such as nausea and vomiting, as The Guardian reported. Bolivar County, where the 2023 study was conducted, has a long history of officials neglecting the health and safety of its predominantly poor, Black residents. In 1971, a group won a federal case against Shaw, a small town in the county, that found that the city discriminated against Black neighborhoods by failing to provide adequate water and sewage services to them. Despite being ordered in 1971 to improve these services “within a reasonable time,” the infrastructure in Bolivar County remains inadequate, with reports of polluted water and over 100 complaints since 2008 of pipes breaking and raw sewage leaks. Peter Hotez, dean of Baylor College’s National School of Tropical Medicine, said that there is “no question” that contact with sewage is a factor in the prevalence of infections in Bolivar County.
Millions may be impacted
Bolivar County’s issue points to a potentially much larger problem. A 2017 research paper found that 70% of surveyed residents in Lowndes County, Alabama, had experienced raw sewage backing up into their homes during heavy rains, and over one-third of those tested positive for hookworm infection. Overall, another study estimates that 12 million Americans have at least one “neglected parasitic infection.” These infections predominantly impact impoverished Americans, and most of these cases occur in Southern states. Legislation to gather more data on these conditions, such as the Neglected Infections of Impoverished Americans Act, was initially proposed in 2010 but has stalled since then. These infections are just one aspect of a nationwide problem of neglected and inadequate water and sanitation services that have struck Black communities from Flint, Michigan, to Jackson, Mississippi.
From the federal level down to local governments, the problems of inadequate water and sewage services for poor Black communities remain underacknowledged and largely unaddressed. The results are that children across this region are dealing with acute and long-term health problems that are virtually unheard of among wealthier, white Americans but are surprisingly typical for poor Black children in the Deep South.
