AN INCREASE IN HOOKWORM INFECTION TEMPORALLY ASSOCIATED WITH ECOLOGICCHANGE

This report describes a significant increase in the prevalence of hook worm infection in an area of Haiti where intestinal parasites are comm on, but hookworm has not been common. Changing environmental condition s, specifically deforestation and subsequent silting of a local river, have caused periodic flooding with deposition of a layer of sandy loa m topsoil and increased soil moisture. We speculate that these conditi ons, conducive to transmission of the infection, have allowed hookworm to reemerge as an important human pathogen.