The Yanomami
are the largest relatively isolated
tribe in the Amazon rainforest, with a population
of about 32,000 that straddle the Venezuela-Brazil border.
Due to this isolation they have very little resistance to
introduced diseases such as flu.
In the 1980-90s, when gold miners invaded
their land, one fifth of the Yanomami in Brazil died from
diseases such as flu and malaria introduced by the miners.
Their future was only secured after a major international
campaign led by the Yanomami themselves, Survival
International and the Pro Yanomami Commission.
Health care is already extremely
precarious on both sides of the border. Many Yanomami
communities have no access at all to health care and this
mountainous, forested region presents many challenges in the
provision of emergency medical aid.
The Yanomami territory lies on the border
of northern Brazil and southern Venezuela and is the largest
indigenous territory in tropical rainforest in the world.
Last month Survival published a report
highlighting the special threat that swine flu presents to
indigenous people around the world.
Stephen Corry, director of Survival said,
‘The situation is critical. Both governments must take
immediate action to halt the epidemic and radically improve
the health care to the Yanomami. If they do not, we could
once more see hundreds of Yanomami dying of treatable
diseases. This would be utterly devastating for this
isolated tribe, whose population has only just recovered
from the epidemics which decimated their population 20 years
ago.’
To read this story online: http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/5173