Emerg Infect DiseidEmerging Infectious Diseases1080-60401080-6059Centers for Disease Control92843892627650Research ArticleAn increase in hookworm infection temporally associated with ecologic change.LilleyB.LammieP.DickersonJ.EberhardM.University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, USA.Jul-Sep199733391393

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