HISTORY OF DISEASE:

• 1550BC - Hookworm described in Egyptian Papyrus Ebers.


• The ancient Chinese, Hippocrates, and Lucretius all describe symptoms of the condition
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• N. americanus was probably introduced from Africa with the slave trade.


• 1843 - Milan physician Angelo Dubini discovers A. duodenale.


• 1878 - In Europe, Grassi shows that hookworm infection can be diagnosed microscopically by searching for eggs in a stool sample.


• 1880 - Anemia outbreak during construction of St. Gotthard tunnel between Italy and Switzerland. Attributed to hookworm. Later spread by workers to mines throughout Europe.


• 1888 - Lutz discovers N. americanus species in Brazil.


• 1902- C.A. Bentley makes connection between “ground itch” and A. duodenale skin penetration.


• 1904 - German helminthologist Arthur Loos elucidates hookworm transmission while in Cairo.


• 1909 - Rockefeller donates $1 million to found the Rockefeller Sanitary Commission for the Eradication of Hookworm Disease.


• 2000 - Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation gives $18 million to the Albert B. Sabin Vaccine Institute to develop a genetically engineered hookworm vaccine.

Source: http://info.med.yale.edu/pediat/PedID/Cappello/Labsite/gallery.html