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By Sydney SpieselPosted Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2006, at 1:04 PM ET

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Causes: Third World anemia has several well-known causes: malaria, which causes red blood cells to break down; hookworm, which causes chronic blood loss in the bowel; lack of access to meat, the most efficient form of dietary iron; and loss of significant amounts of blood in childbirth. And now another cause has come to light: Fifth Disease. This common viral malady generally causes trivial illness in the United States. But it temporarily turns off the production of red blood cells, and this effect endangers fetuses early in pregnancy and people whose red cell status is already marginal, including markedly anemic children, people with malaria, and people with sickle cell disease. A recent study of children in Papua New Guinea by a team headed by James Wildig and Yvonne Cossart of the University of Sydney found that Fifth Disease plays a significant role in severe anemia in this region.

Effects: In the developing world, the effects of anemia extend beyond weakness, easy exhaustion, and interference with concentration. Worse, because severe anemia is often treated with blood transfusions, anemic people (and especially women) are at risk of HIV in the developing world, where transfusion now accounts for 5 percent of HIV/AIDS transmission.

Prevention: What can be done to prevent anemia? A $1 tablet given to women after giving birth cuts postpartum hemorrhage rates by 50 percent to 80 percent. A $3.50 bed net treated with insecticide significantly decreases malaria transmission. It costs $10 per person per year to construct latrines, which cut the rate of hookworm infection. Peter Hotez and his colleagues at George Washington University and the Sabin Vaccine Institute have been pioneers at developing even more cost-effective treatments for hookworm. These include deworming medications that cost less than $1 per person per year (in part because of donations by pharmaceutical firms). And the most exciting possibility: They are developing a vaccine that would provide lasting protection against the hookworm parasite. Because the long-term consequences of anemia are so costly, the economic return for each of these initiatives will surely be great.

*Correction, Dec. 5, 2006: Due to an editing error, this sentence originally called RU-486 the morning-after pill. Though RU-486 at a low dose has been used for that purpose, the "morning-after pill" usually refers to birth-control pills taken in high doses after unprotected sex. Here's more. Click here to return to the corrected sentence.

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Sydney Spiesel is a pediatrician in Woodbridge, Conn., and clinical professor of pediatrics at Yale University's School of Medicine.
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