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This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Cynthia Graber. This will just take a minute.

Shakespeare noted¹ that a worm may eat a king, after that king is dead. Sadly, parasitic² worms infect people who are still alive, especially kids. Public health advocates estimate that a third of the people on earth are infected with parasitic worms, called helminths, particularly in poorer areas with inadequate³ sanitation⁴.

Helminths harm health, but also interfere⁵ with nutrition and even academic advancement⁶. So the London School of Hygiene⁷ and Tropical Medicine, with the Partnership⁸ for Child Development at Imperial College London, launched what’s called This Wormy World. It’s an atlas⁹ of the distribution and prevalence of helminth diseases, including roundworm, hookworm and whipworm.

It’s often easy to control the parasites¹⁰ with cheap treatments. But resources get wasted because deworming programs are targeted at the wrong communities. The atlas should help the eradication¹¹ fight by letting health officials know just where the problem areas are.

The scientists have been collecting data for the past decade. Their first map focuses on Africa, where worm infestations¹² are worst. Maps for the rest of the world will be out by the end of 2010—providing a complete picture of this wormy world of ours. And a new tool to tackle it.

Thanks for the minute. For Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Cynthia Graber.