Shiloh
Editor, Senior Moderator
Source: http://www.vancouversun.com/busines...ons+vulnerable+H1N1+report/1753673/story.html
Aboriginal populations vulnerable to H1N1: report
By Mike Barber, Canwest News Service July 2, 2009 5:01 PM
The author of study to be published in the next issue of the medical journal Lancet said swine flu could devastate indigenous populations around the world due to their sensitivity to infectious disease.
Dr. Michael Gracey, a medical adviser to Unity of First People of Australia, an aboriginal non-profit organization, suggests that the world's almost 400 million indigenous peoples ? including about 1.2 million in Canada ? are particularly at risk for contracting swine flu because they often live in remote, impoverished communities with limited access to medical infrastructure.
First Nations communities in Manitoba and northern Ontario have already been hit by the highly communicable H1N1 virus. Despite comprising just 10 per cent of the population in Manitoba, natives make up about a third of the 685 swine flu cases in that province.
The spread of the virus on reserves prompted aboriginal leaders around Manitoba to declare states of emergency last week to help free funds for federal assistance.
Gracey said the lack of hospitals and medical workers in isolated aboriginal communities means that while they are often introduced to viruses later than the rest of the population, the effects can be quick and punishing.
"I am rather fearful that there will be more deaths from this illness in indigenous populations," he said, adding that the first person to die from swine flu in Australia was a young, desert-dwelling aboriginal man living hundreds of kilometres away from a hospital.
"The underlying factor is that indigenous people are susceptible to infections because they have low immunity, they're often undernourished, and they often have pre-existing illnesses."
Gracey's article, to be released Friday, focused on disease patterns in indigenous groups around the world.
Gracey said his concern is that if natives in developed countries such as Canada are being hit harder than the general population, the impact on indigenous peoples in the developing world, from China to Chile, could be catastrophic.
"These countries have very large indigenous populations and they do not have the underlying public health infrastructure and preventive programs and the capability for dealing with pandemics that Canada, Australia, and the U.S. do."
He cited the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 as an example of how native communities were decimated by a virus that originated in Europe before spreading the furthest reaches of the globe.
"It's a word of caution, a word of warning, that this may happen again."
With files from the Winnipeg Free Press
Aboriginal populations vulnerable to H1N1: report
By Mike Barber, Canwest News Service July 2, 2009 5:01 PM
The author of study to be published in the next issue of the medical journal Lancet said swine flu could devastate indigenous populations around the world due to their sensitivity to infectious disease.
Dr. Michael Gracey, a medical adviser to Unity of First People of Australia, an aboriginal non-profit organization, suggests that the world's almost 400 million indigenous peoples ? including about 1.2 million in Canada ? are particularly at risk for contracting swine flu because they often live in remote, impoverished communities with limited access to medical infrastructure.
First Nations communities in Manitoba and northern Ontario have already been hit by the highly communicable H1N1 virus. Despite comprising just 10 per cent of the population in Manitoba, natives make up about a third of the 685 swine flu cases in that province.
The spread of the virus on reserves prompted aboriginal leaders around Manitoba to declare states of emergency last week to help free funds for federal assistance.
Gracey said the lack of hospitals and medical workers in isolated aboriginal communities means that while they are often introduced to viruses later than the rest of the population, the effects can be quick and punishing.
"I am rather fearful that there will be more deaths from this illness in indigenous populations," he said, adding that the first person to die from swine flu in Australia was a young, desert-dwelling aboriginal man living hundreds of kilometres away from a hospital.
"The underlying factor is that indigenous people are susceptible to infections because they have low immunity, they're often undernourished, and they often have pre-existing illnesses."
Gracey's article, to be released Friday, focused on disease patterns in indigenous groups around the world.
Gracey said his concern is that if natives in developed countries such as Canada are being hit harder than the general population, the impact on indigenous peoples in the developing world, from China to Chile, could be catastrophic.
"These countries have very large indigenous populations and they do not have the underlying public health infrastructure and preventive programs and the capability for dealing with pandemics that Canada, Australia, and the U.S. do."
He cited the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 as an example of how native communities were decimated by a virus that originated in Europe before spreading the furthest reaches of the globe.
"It's a word of caution, a word of warning, that this may happen again."
With files from the Winnipeg Free Press
