What can I do about it?
Today, you can become a powerful advocate for change and donate to our research efforts. Developing cures and diagnostics for any human disease is challenging and takes significant resources. Developing cures for human diseases that affect the poorest peoples of the world where the profit incentive is minimal includes even greater challenges. Nonetheless, with your help, we can tackle this challenge and bring a brighter future to hundreds of millions of children and pregnant women and to our world. It is our belief that a worm-free humanity brings a better day for everyone.
Currently 0.02% of research funds targeted for neglected tropical diseases goes towards finding new drugs for intestinal roundworms. To put that in perspective, in 2008 $175 million in research funds went towards the development of new malarial drugs, which was more than 230 times the amount that went towards new drugs for intestinal parasitic roundworms. Yet intestinal roundworm parasites cumulatively may cause as much disease as malaria. If you live in the United States, we ask you to write to your Congressman or Congresswoman (https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml), your U.S. Senator (http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm), and President Obama (http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/). Simply state that you believe that tackling the challenge of intestinal parasitic roundworms deserves more attention and that a worm-free world is a better world. If you want to take more action, contact the National Institutes of Health (NIHinfo@od.nih.gov), the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (info@gatesfoundation.org), or the World Health Organization (info@who.int). Thank them for their efforts and let them know you support increased attention for intestinal roundworms.
You can also support those organizations that promote child nutrition and clean water, food, and environment in tropical countries.