Deaths jump in Brazil's indigenous tribes as virus spreads

Record ID: 1555659

  • Title: Deaths jump in Brazil's indigenous tribes as virus spreads
  • Date: 4th June 2020
  • Summary: MANAUS, BRAZIL (FILE - APRIL 2, 2020) (REUTERS) BOAT ON THE RIO NEGRO RIO NEGRO WITH HOMES OFF SHORE LOCAL RESIDENT ON BOAT
  • Embargoed: 18th June 2020 17:26
  • Keywords: Amazon Brazil Brazilian care communities coronavirus dedicated hospital indigenous infections medical native outbreak pandemic spread treatment tribes
  • Location: XINGU INDIGENOUS PARK & MANAUS, BRAZIL
  • City: XINGU INDIGENOUS PARK & MANAUS, BRAZIL
  • Country: Brazil
  • Topics: Health/Medicine
  • Reuters ID: LVA003CGYHT8N
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Coronavirus is spreading fast through Brazil's indigenous populations, with deaths caused by the disease increasing more than five-fold in the past month, according to data collected by a national association of first peoples.
    The numbers may be small compared to the rest of Brazil, which now has the second largest outbreak in the world, but they are significant because they show the virus has taken hold in vulnerable communities where doctors fear the spread will prove devastating.
    The only intensive care units in the vast state of Amazonas are located in Manaus, where a wing for indigenous COVID-19 patients was opened last week.
    But even there access for indigenous people is complicated. On Wednesday (June 03), indigenous women protested outside the hospital because tribal shamans were not being allowed in and they could not bring herbal medicines to a relative with COVID-19.
    Many epidemiologists had hoped remote locations might protect the tribes, but the virus, which first took hold in Brazil's cosmopolitan state capitals of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, is increasingly devastating these far-flung communities where basic healthcare is often precarious.
    For many indigenous it harks back to a dark past.
    When Europeans first navigated the rivers of the Amazon rainforest, their smallpox decimated local tribes. Later, rubber tappers, gold miners and settlers brought malaria, measles and influenza. Now, it is COVID-19.
    Deaths among Brazil's indigenous populations rose to 182 by June 1, from 28 at the end of April, according to the Articulation of Brazil's Indigenous Peoples (APIB) - a national umbrella association that brings together the country's 305 tribes.
    The official figures provided by Brazil's government put the number of dead at 59, as they only classify indigenous deaths as those occurring among tribes living on reservations but not those who have migrated to cities.
    (Production: Bruno Kelly, Pablo Garcia, Leandra Camera)
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