Stop bill is first in the US to focus exclusively on illnesses that impair the lives of up to 12 million Americans

The Democratic presidential candidate Cory Booker introduced on Wednesday a Senate bill to prevent, detect and ultimately eradicate neglected diseases that thrive amid extreme poverty and impair the lives of up to 12 million Americans.

Booker’s bill, which goes under the acronym Stop – the Study, Treat Observe and Prevent Neglected Diseases of Poverty Act – is the first in the US to focus exclusively on such illnesses. It follows growing awareness of the health disaster caused by faulty or non-existent sewage treatment, unsafe drinking water and substandard housing and sanitation.

Diseases more commonly associated with the developing world are flourishing in the US at alarming levels as a result of deprivation that allows bacteria, parasites and other pathogens to spread through contaminated food, water or soil. In 2017, the Guardian revealed that hookworm, a parasitic disease that thrives in communities enduring extreme poverty, is endemic in the deep south having been assumed eradicated in the US decades ago.

Hookworm is not the only disease gaining hold at a time of increasing health inequalities and crumbling infrastructure. Booker’s bill also targets illnesses such as mosquito-borne dengue fever, toxocariasis, cysticercosis, Chagas disease, toxoplasmosis and trichomoniasis.

All of them are chronic and disabling diseases that wreak devastation among Americans living in the most extreme form of poverty. In the case of hookworm, the parasite was found to be present in Lowndes county in Alabama, a largely African American area where almost a third of the population lives below the official US poverty line and where sewage treatment facilities are shockingly primitive.

“Across the poorest parts of our country people are facing appalling realities that would shock the consciousness of many Americans,” Booker said. “Diseases commonly associated with developing countries, such as hookworm and dengue fever, are sprouting right here in the US – and disproportionately impacting our most underserved communities.”

Under the Stop bill, an interagency taskforce would be set up to conduct a comprehensive survey to determine where and to what extent the diseases have taken hold. That in turn would encourage the diagnosis and treatment of the illnesses, as well as supporting research and education around the phenomenon.

Booker’s push on diseases of poverty follows similar legislation he introduced on environmental justice. The US senator from New Jersey has also been at the forefront of efforts to tackle lead in drinking water, promoting legislation that was signed into law earlier this month that gives states greater flexibility to divert funds to confront the problem.

One of the dangers of the diseases that are proliferating in poor communities across the US is that millions of people are not even aware they are infected. As a result they do not seek treatment, which in turn can lead to serious problems in later life including, Stop says, “heart disease, epilepsy, asthma, blindness, developmental delays, stillbirth, low birthweight and gastrointestinal disorders”.

“These illnesses are not rare, in fact they are common, but seldom diagnosed, treated or prevented because they occur almost exclusively in Americans living in extreme poverty,” said Dr Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine who has carried out groundbreaking research on diseases of poverty including hookworm.