Table 1.

Estimates of burden and impact of neglected parasitic infections

More than 300,000 persons living in the United States are infected with Trypanosoma cruzi, the cause of Chagas disease, and more than 300 infected babies are born every year in the United States

At least 1,000 incident hospitalizations for symptomatic neurocysticercosis per year in the United States

At least 14% of the U.S. population has been exposed to Toxocara, and each year at least 70 people, most of them children, are blinded by ocular toxocariasis

More than 60 million persons in the United States are chronically infected with Toxoplasma gondii; new infections in pregnant women can lead to birth defects and infections in immunocompromised persons can be fatal

Trichomoniasis is a major cause of infertility and preterm labor and low birthweight, and each year 1.1 million people are newly infected with Trichomonas in the United States