The purpose of this paper is to analyze the conflicting roles of traditional and Western medical systems and the part that they have played in the case of childhood parasitosis and anemia in rural NW Amazonia. This will be achieved by first evaluating the relationship between helminthis infection, specifically that of hookworms, and the rise of irondeficient anemia in children. Secondly, an analytical description of the two primary systems of medical treatment - Western biomedicine an shamanic healing - will be made.