Threadworm a silent killer in Aus native communities – but racially profiled by NT Health dept
Written by alex on Thursday, February 24th, 2011 in Men Health.
Doctors in remote rural communities in Australia’s Northern Territory are alarmed about a killer parasite infecting people amid claims authorities are failing to take the threat seriously….. Doctors concerned over killer parasite – Strongyloides is a parasite that crawls in through intact skin and breeds in the body indefinitely. The available evidence suggests more than a third of people in some remote Northern Territory communities have it. It makes people sick, and if they are given the wrong drugs it can be fatal. Dr Wendy Page who has worked in communities for years says there is a culture within the department of “don’t look, don’t find”. Data she has collected at the Miwatj Health Clinic at Nhulunbuy suggests the prevalence is near 40 per cent….. The Immigration Department says it tests refugees and humanitarian migrants before and after they come to Australia, and if they test positive, they are treated….. One Australian study tracked returned prisoners of war, and found they were still carrying strongyloides 35 years later….. Elcho Island elder Djiniyini Gondarra says he was hospitalised several times before doctors tested for strongyloides. “This is another disease, a silent killer that is happening now,” he said. He later found two other members of his family were infected. “What’s wrong with us that this is not being really seen seriously?” The territory’s Health Department believes other diseases are more important, and that limited health dollars are …
