[HN Gopher] Parasites plagued Roman soldiers at Hadrian's Wall
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Parasites plagued Roman soldiers at Hadrian's Wall
Author : sipofwater
Score : 16 points
Date : 2025-12-19 17:51 UTC (7 days ago)
(HTM) web link (arstechnica.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (arstechnica.com)
| eszed wrote:
| I find that observation unsurprising. What would be more
| interesting is the relative incidence between outlying forts and
| interior urban centres. The article mentions a couple of papers
| on urban fecal matter, so maybe that answer is available. I can
| create hypothetical cases for either location to be higher or
| lower than the other.
| Epa095 wrote:
| I live with amazing technology all around me, and I often take it
| for granted. But whenever I take mebendazol (against e.g.
| pinworm) I think about my ancestors, and how they just had to
| live with it!
| alistairSH wrote:
| Why are you taking anti-parasitics regularly?
| yes_man wrote:
| Not OP but one reason is having young kids that can't help
| bringing home everything that is spreading in
| daycare/kindergarten
| dpark wrote:
| Are there areas in the developed world where this is
| common? I've never heard of anyone regularly taking anti
| parasitic medication because their kids kept bringing home
| parasites from daycare. I had a friend whose son was
| prescribed medicine for pinworms _once_ when he was fairly
| young (mostly as a precaution).
| Epa095 wrote:
| Pinworms are particularly common in children, with
| prevalence rates in this age group having been reported
| as high as 61% in India, 50% in England, 39% in Thailand,
| 37% in Sweden, and 29% in Denmark. [1]
|
| Remember that prevalence is the
| proportion of a particular population found to be
| affected by a medical condition (typically a disease or a
| risk factor such as smoking or seatbelt use) at a
| specific time.
|
| So it is not just that percentage has had it at any point
| in their life, it is that percentage that has it at any
| time.
|
| And yes, kids. Pinworm is literally called 'children
| worm' here.
|
| 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinworm_(parasite)#burkh
| art200...
| gehsty wrote:
| https://cks.nice.org.uk/topics/threadworm/background-
| informa...
|
| NICE estimate 20-30% of kids 4-11 have an infestation. I
| have three kids in this bracket and yeh this tracks
| giardini wrote:
| b/c he lives someplace where people get parasites regularly?
| Also b/c it is far cheaper to treat for parasites (take a
| pill) than to test and then treat (visit a doctor, get a
| prescription, take a pill).
|
| For example, many parasites are endemic to the southern USA.
| As a child I was checked for parasites every year. Most
| modern doctors I've met are negligent in this regard. Under
| questioning several have stated that it is unimportant. Some
| doctors assert incorrectly that blood tests would reveal any
| significant parasitic infestation. I always correct them but
| I also change doctors.
|
| Ever walk barefoot across the lawn?
|
| Ever eat uncooked fish/flesh/sushi?
|
| Then you might want to get tested!8-))
| jasonwatkinspdx wrote:
| At least in the US parasite risk from sushi is very low
| because nearly all seafood sold/served is put through a
| deep freeze cycle.
|
| But if you're slicing up something you just caught that
| could be an issue. It's a concern with hunting/game as
| well. Most people who get trichinosis in the US get it from
| eating bear apparently.
| giardini wrote:
| I crossed bear off my menu a long time ago!
| tsol wrote:
| Parasites used to be ubiquitous before we had medication to kill
| them. There's even a (not very well supported) theory that these
| parasites helped with allergies by moderating immune system. They
| releasing chemicals to lower immune activity in order to protect
| themselves, so the idea that we had these for thousands of years
| and basically are made to have them is intriguing. It's called
| "helminthic therapy" and it's considered alternative medicine but
| there is some academic interest. Results in clinical trials have
| been mixed. Perhaps the future is just synthetic hookworm
| proteins that regulate your immune system as our ancestors once
| had.
| IneffablePigeon wrote:
| My partner researches one parasite named in this study (a type
| of whipworm) and they actually get their eggs for in vitro work
| from another researcher abroad who infected himself with the
| parasite because he finds it helps with his autoimmune disease.
| He harvests the eggs and distributes them to other teams.
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