First Sea Lice, Now Hookworms

[ALTravelGal]

Not Labadee specifically.  Recent news story on the Dominican.  Yuck article about a Canadian couple picking up hook worms in their feet. Has anyone ever picked these up at Labadee? My husband and I have happily/blissfully ignorantly swum, and barefoot beached it all over the Caribbean. Just now finding out about both of these ugly bugglies. (Yes I know Sea Lice are cute tiny tempermental baby jellyfish not insects)

[taglovestocruise]

39 minutes ago, ALTravelGal said:

Not Labadee specifically.  Recent news story on the Dominican.  Yuck article about a Canadian couple picking up hook worms in their feet. Has anyone ever picked these up at Labadee? My husband and I have happily/blissfully ignorantly swum, and barefoot beached it all over the Caribbean. Just now finding out about both of these ugly bugglies. (Yes I know Sea Lice are cute tiny tempermental baby jellyfish not insects)

Looks like something from Star trek, plus they give a healthy bite. They have been reported as being on Martinique, but will be on your beach soon. This is the couple from Canada...

 

 

[Ret MP]

I grew up in S. Florida.  We played in the myriad of white sand piles, where many different kinds of animals peeeeeed and pooooooped,  during the construction boom of the late 50's - 60's.  Hookworm was almost a regular issue.  We'd catch it early, go to the doctor's office get it sprayed with that stuff that freezes skin on contact.  A few days later, it was gone and it was time to start all over again.  No big deal if you don't ignore it.  No harm, no foul. 

[taglovestocruise]

26 minutes ago, Ret MP said:

I grew up in S. Florida.  We played in the myriad of white sand piles, where many different kinds of animals peeeeeed and pooooooped,  during the construction boom of the late 50's - 60's.  Hookworm was almost a regular issue.  We'd catch it early, go to the doctor's office get it sprayed with that stuff that freezes skin on contact.  A few days later, it was gone and it was time to start all over again.  No big deal if you don't ignore it.  No harm, no foul. 

Kids like me in the 50's were indestructible. There was so much housing construction going on in my area in 1958 I remember we used to break chunks of tar from the tar trucks and chew it like bubble gum. 

[Ret MP]

6 minutes ago, taglovestocruise said:

Kids like me in the 50's were indestructible. There was so much housing construction going on in my area in 1958 I remember we used to break chunks of tar from the tar trucks and chew it like bubble gum. 

LOL, I hear ya, I think.

 

We used to run behind the city truck fogger, I mean a thick dense fog, fogging the area for mosquitoes. I loved the smell of the stuff.  I think it was a Kerosine product. 

 

 

[Jingerwoppy]

We also drank from water hoses and rode in the car on the platform above the backseat. We were indestructible. Now we pull a muscle when opening a bag of chips.

 

My oh my how the mighty have fallen......  😞 

[boscobeans]

12 hours ago, Ret MP said:

LOL, I hear ya, I think.

 

We used to run behind the city truck fogger, I mean a thick dense fog, fogging the area for mosquitoes. I loved the smell of the stuff.  I think it was a Kerosine product. 

 

 

That was the main ingredient in the world famous FLIT GUN. It was actually DDT, which has been banned in the U.S.A. since 1972.

I grew up in Brooklyn and we all ran behind the sprayers with our friends, drenched in the stuff, LOVING EVERY MINUTE.

 

Edited August 26, 2023 by boscobeans

[Ret MP]

13 minutes ago, boscobeans said:

That was the main ingredient in the world famous FLIT GUN. It was actually DDT, which has been banned in the U.S.A. since 1972.

I grew up in Brooklyn and we all ran behind the sprayers with our friends, drenched in the stuff, LOVING EVERY MINUTE.

 

Oh man, I used to wear those things out.  That was "high Tech" back then.  Looks a lot like the bicycle tire/tube pump, too.

 

BTW:  We, here in Alabama, still have the City Truck driving around the neighborhoods with a fogless fogger for the pests.  I wish it worked on a couple for neighbors of ours. LOL

Edited August 26, 2023 by Ret MP

[irishgal432]

13 hours ago, Ret MP said:

LOL, I hear ya, I think.

 

We used to run behind the city truck fogger, I mean a thick dense fog, fogging the area for mosquitoes. I loved the smell of the stuff.  I think it was a Kerosine product. 

 

 

Us too!  Our parents used to encourage us.

[RedSails1968]

7 minutes ago, irishgal432 said:

Us too!  Our parents used to encourage us.

Grew up on Long Island and where we lived it was always the boys that rode their bikes behind those dastardly trucks. We girls wouldn’t go near them!

[Homosassa]

You picked up hookworms from coming into contact with soil contaminated with feces from an infected animal or human.

 

This means you can pick it up in parts of the USA as easily as elsewhere.

[Ret MP]

3 hours ago, RedSails1968 said:

Grew up on Long Island and where we lived it was always the boys that rode their bikes behind those dastardly trucks. We girls wouldn’t go near them!

And we wonder why women have longer life expectancy than men.  

[Ret MP]

2 hours ago, Homosassa said:

You picked up hookworms from coming into contact with soil contaminated with feces from an infected animal or human.

 

This means you can pick it up in parts of the USA as easily as elsewhere.

Yep, that's where I said I picked it up, S. Florida, and the cause.

[jwlane]

18 hours ago, ALTravelGal said:

  Recent news story on the Dominican. 

Not.

[barbeyg]

18 hours ago, Ret MP said:

LOL, I hear ya, I think.

 

We used to run behind the city truck fogger, I mean a thick dense fog, fogging the area for mosquitoes. I loved the smell of the stuff.  I think it was a Kerosine product. 

This made me laugh out loud! 🤣 I used to fill my Dad’s cigarette lighter, unscrewing the little screw, then filling up, and loved the smell of the fluid.  He stopped me from doing it when he caught me taking a big sniff of the can of fluid. 😂 I was 8 and had no idea it made you high. 

[goldfish65]

We knew the sound from far away, “THE FOG MAN’S COMING!” Jumped on our bikes and rode happily in the dense fog. It was a sad day when they changed to an invisible spray. 
 

Somehow never got hookworm though mothers said we would, running around barefoot all the time. 

[taglovestocruise]

80 year old who ran through foggers, drank water from exposed sprinkler heads in the neighborhood and lived on Payday candy bars and drank RC cola.

 

80 year old that had a healthy and safe childhood. 

[2chiefs]

7 hours ago, boscobeans said:

<<SNIP>> 

It was actually DDT, which has been banned in the U.S.A. since 1972.

<SNIP>>

 

 

 

Unintended consequences? I read somewhere that the ban on DDT (in many places besides the US) actually caused more deaths than the of lives it supposedly saved. Evidently the argument was that the amount of people that died from Malaria rose sharply after DDT was banned. 

[Ret MP]

18 hours ago, jwlane said:

Not.

Premise!

[Fouremco]

On 8/25/2023 at 6:40 PM, ALTravelGal said:

Not Labadee specifically.  Recent news story on the Dominican.  Yuck article about a Canadian couple picking up hook worms in their feet. Has anyone ever picked these up at Labadee? My husband and I have happily/blissfully ignorantly swum, and barefoot beached it all over the Caribbean. Just now finding out about both of these ugly bugglies. (Yes I know Sea Lice are cute tiny tempermental baby jellyfish not insects)

 

21 hours ago, jwlane said:

Not.

 

3 hours ago, Ret MP said:

Premise!

The news articles about the Canadian couple aren't recent, they date back to 2018. Here's one of many:

https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/ont-couple-contract-hookworms-on-punta-cana-vacation-1.3777198?cache=

[jwlane]

57 minutes ago, Fouremco said:

news articles ... aren't recent,

Yeah, I pointed that out a couple of days ago, but someone got their feelings hurt and the censors jumped in.  Maybe they wanted to get this out there to mention the use of Ivermectin (the most effective sure) and try to promote its use for something it was never demonstrated useful for---Covid-19.

[taglovestocruise]

On 8/26/2023 at 8:19 AM, Homosassa said:

You picked up hookworms from coming into contact with soil contaminated with feces from an infected animal or human.

 

This means you can pick it up in parts of the USA as easily as elsewhere.

Not really,There is very little risk of getting the disease in the United States because of advances in sanitation and waste control

Sep 12, 2017 — The American medical establishment was confident: no hookworm disease in the country for decades. 

Edited August 27, 2023 by taglovestocruise

[Fouremco]

14 hours ago, taglovestocruise said:

Not really,There is very little risk of getting the disease in the United States because of advances in sanitation and waste control

Sep 12, 2017 — The American medical establishment was confident: no hookworm disease in the country for decades. 

According to the CDC, "Hookworm was once widespread in the United States, particularly in the southeastern region, but improvements in living conditions have greatly reduced hookworm infections." While reduced, the CDC gives no indication that hookworm disease has been eradicated in the US.

https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/hookworm/index.html#:~:text=Hookworm was once widespread in,transmitted helminths (parasitic worms).

 

Moreover, the results of a study published in 2017 in the The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene revealed that in an Alabamian test group "from 55 stool samples, 19 (34.5%) tested positive for N. americanus [Necator americanus, i.e. hookworm]". 

https://www.ajtmh.org/view/journals/tpmd/97/5/article-p1623.xml?tab_body=fulltext

 

This article, entitled The U.S. Thought It Was Rid Of Hookworm. Wrong, provides an easier to read overview of the study: https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2017/09/12/550387650/the-u-s-thought-it-was-rid-of-hookworm-wrong

[Ret MP]

On 8/27/2023 at 10:05 AM, Fouremco said:

 

 

The news articles about the Canadian couple aren't recent, they date back to 2018. Here's one of many:

https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/ont-couple-contract-hookworms-on-punta-cana-vacation-1.3777198?cache=

I understand that.  It doesn't change the premise of the OPs post.  The issue still can exist, TODAY!

 

[Fouremco]

48 minutes ago, Ret MP said:

I understand that.  It doesn't change the premise of the OPs post.  The issue still can exist, TODAY!

 

Absolutely, I agree completely that there is still a possibility. I'm simply pointing out that the incident cited by the OP is not recent. Anyone weighing the potential risks should be made aware that this occurrence is over 5 years old, with no more current incidents having come to the attention of the international media.