Dawn Jacobs, age 13, of Brownsville, Tex., for her question:

HOW DO SOME PEOPLE PICK UP HOOKWORMS?

Hookworms are small roundworms that enter the bodies of human beings and some animals through the skin. The hookworms can cause anemia, which is a shortage of red blood cells.

People can pick up hookworm disease by walking barefoot on soil that contains young worms. Later, the hookworm eggs pass out of the host with the body waste and hatch in moist, warm soil. The larvae or young worms come to the surface of the soil and can burrow into the bare skin of animals that touch them.

A person may also become infected with the worms by swallowing impure food or water.

Once in the body, a hookworm enters the blood stream and is carried to the lungs. It burrows into air channels there, passes into the throat and is swallowed into the intestine. When hookworms reach the intestine, they become adults.

Improving conditions of sanitation have reduced the amount of infection by hookworms.

Treatment calls for a doctor prescribed drug. Recovery is speeded when the patient eats foods high in protein, vitamins and iron.