Re: Amazon Indians hit by deadly epidemic in Venezuela - Malaria suspected
http://www.promedmail.org/pls/apex/..._BACK_PAGE,F2400_P1001_PUB_MAIL_ID:1000,85668
Archive Number 20101105.4013
Published Date 05-NOV-2010
Subject PRO/EDR> Malaria - Venezuela: (AM), Yanomami
MALARIA - VENZUELA: (AMAZONAS), YANOMAMI
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International Society for Infectious Diseases
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[1]
Date: Wed 3 Nov 2010
Source: Elpais.com.co (In Spanish, trans. Corr.SB, edited)
<http://www.elpais.com.co/elpais/internacional/noticias/reportan-17-indigenas-murieron-por-brote-malaria>
17 indigenous people killed by malaria outbreak
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A team of specialists has estimated that 17 indigenous peoples of the
Yanomami died from an outbreak of malaria in the last 3 months, a
government health official said, on Wednesday [3 Nov 2010]. This
represents a figure much lower than that reported by health workers
of the community.
The team of medical specialists visited 3 remote villages of the
Yanomami people in Venezuela's Amazon jungle and confirmed, by
interviews with the villagers, that 17 people, including children,
were apparently affected by malaria in the last 3 months, the
regional health director of Amazonas state, Dr. Miguel Hernandez said
on Tuesday night [2 Nov 2010].
Two indigenous medical assistants, who visited the area,reported last
week that according to the village headmen, about 50 people had died recently.
Hernandez, however, said in a telephone interview, that a thorough
study confirmed a lower figure. He said one of the victims died
during the doctors visit that lasted 5 days in late October [2010].
The medical mission administered antimalarial drugs to the majority
of the 150 people living in the 3 villages, and officials confirmed
60 cases of this disease (malaria) among 91 patients who were treated
for illnesses ranging from diarrhea to respiratory infections, said
Hernandez, in a statement.
He added that a follow-up visit, by helicopter, is scheduled this
month and in the coming days, health officials will also travel to
different remote areas to check the situation in other communities.
The Yanomami, one of the most isolated indigenous groups in Amazonia,
have regularly suffered from malaria, and information on outbreaks is
often difficult to confirm because many villages have only sporadic
contact with the outside world.
The Yanomami health workers, Andres Blanco and Luis Ahiwei Shatiwe,
who initially reported the highest death toll, could not immediately
be reached for comment.
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[2]
Date: Mon 1 Nov 2010
Source: Real Clear World [edited]
<http://www.realclearworld.com/news/ap/international/2010/Oct/30/amazon_indians_hit_by_deadly_epidemic_in_venezuela.html>
Amazon Indians hit by deadly epidemic in Venezuela
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Venezuelan health workers say an epidemic that may be malaria has
killed dozens of people, decimating 3 villages of the Yanomami
Indians, whose struggle for survival in a remote part of the Amazon
rain forest has attracted worldwide support. 2 indigenous health
workers who visited the area told The Associated Press (AP) on Friday
[29 Oct 2010] that village chiefs told them that about 50 people have
died recently, many of them children.
"There are still many, many sick people," Andres Blanco said by
telephone from Puerto Ayacucho in southern Venezuela. Blanco, a
Yanomami health worker in a government program for the indigenous
communities, alerted regional officials this month after trekking for
days to visit 3 remote villages. He returned by helicopter last
weekend with a team of government doctors who administered medication
and confirmed that many survivors are also infected with malaria.
A regional health official, Dr. Carlos Botto, said the initial
accounts and tests have shown there was some type of epidemic and
evidence of malaria. But he said the number of deaths remained
unclear and further tests were needed to determine if other diseases
could be involved.
He said other officials were analyzing results of the 5-day medical
mission. "What's certain is that there was an epidemic with deaths,"
Botto said in a telephone interview. He said the number of deaths
reported by those in the communities was just an estimate.
"The number could be lower, but in any case it's an important,
alarming number," said Botto, who leads a program focused on river
blindness at a government institute, the Amazon Center of Research
and Control of Tropical Diseases in Puerto Ayacucho.
Health Ministry officials in Caracas did not return repeated calls
from the AP seeking comment, nor did the government's epidemiologist
in Amazonas state.
Blanco said when he 1st reached the area on foot in mid-October
[2010], leaders of the 3 tiny communities told him that 51 people out
of roughly 200 who lived there had died in recent months. Blanco said
there have been at least 3 more victims since.
"I've never seen it like this," said Shatiwe Luis Ahiwei, another
Yanomami health worker who assisted in the medical mission and said
about 100 more malaria cases had been identified in the area, more
than half of them the deadly falciparum strain. The sick have had
symptoms which included high fever, shivering, vomiting and bloody diarrhea.
The Yanomami are one of the largest isolated indigenous groups in the
Amazon, with a population estimated at roughly 30 000 on both sides
of the Venezuela-Brazil border. They have maintained their language
as well as traditions including face paint and wooden facial
ornaments piercing their noses, cheeks and lips.
Their forest-dwelling society has long been a focus of studies by
anthropologists. Human rights and environmental activists have
championed the group's effort to preserve its culture and rain forest
in the face of pressures from the outside world; a struggle that led
to the 1983 musical "Yanomamo," which was adapted for television as
"Song of the Forest," narrated by the rock star Sting. Isolation has
left the Yanomami vulnerable to many illnesses such as measles,
yellow fever and hepatitis that have been spread by outsiders.
Indigenous rights activist Christina Haverkamp said that the
government response has been slow and inadequate, and that doctors
need access to helicopters to reach people in other areas where
similar situations have been reported.
"Many Yanomami are dying and need help," said Haverkamp, a German who
runs the organization Yanomami-Hilfe and has worked among the
Yanomami for 2 decades in Venezuela and Brazil.
Malaria is common in the Yanomami region, and Haverkamp said she has
caught it 4 times over the years. But she said she has never seen
such a serious outbreak. "It's a catastrophe and also a scandal that
they still don't ... have it under control," she said.
Officials in President Hugo Chavez's government insist they have
improved and expanded medical care through a program called the
Yanomami Health Plan, investing in clinics and also training some of
the Yanomami to be health workers for their own villages.
American missionaries belonging to the group New Tribes Mission used
to aid sick villagers, but in 2005 Chavez expelled them, accusing
them of conducting espionage.
"With the missionaries, health care was better under control," at
least in areas where they worked, Haverkamp said.
Nationwide, the Health Ministry says 39 658 malaria cases have been
reported so far in 2010, an increase of about 42 percent compared to
the same period last year. The report does not list fatalities.
Haverkamp suggested the spike in the mosquito-borne illness among the
Yanomami may be due to an influx of malaria-infected Brazilian gold
miners working in illegal camps near indigenous settlements, and she
said the military should evict the miners.
Information about disease outbreaks has often proven difficult to
confirm among the Yanomami, in part because it is their custom not to
speak about the dead and also because many villages have only
sporadic contact with the outside world.
Last year, health officials reported 6 deaths among the Yanomami due
to respiratory illnesses that the officials suspected might have
included swine flu, but no tissue samples were analyzed in time to confirm it.
The Yanomami typically cremate their dead. In funeral rituals, they
mix the ashes with mashed bananas and water, and drink it to honour
the deceased.
But Blanco said that due to the many deaths in the 3 villages --
Maiweteri, Pooshiteri and Awakau -- some bodies had simply been left
out in the forest. He said he saw a few corpses.
"It was too much to burn all of them, as is our custom," Ahiwei said.
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[The postings do not state specifically how malaria was diagnosed,
and as said in the 2nd posting from 1 Nov 2010, other infections
could be involved as well. Bloody diarrhea is mentioned as a common
symptom, and this is not normally seen in malaria.
Malaria is endemic in the areas as stated by the Ms Christina
Haverkamp, and with such an endemicity, it would be expected that the
Yanomami would have some immunity and simply introducing malaria with
illegal miners should not give rise to an outbreak and especially not
with many deaths in a semi-immune population.
In a semi-immune population, the mere presence of malaria in blood
films does not prove that symptoms in the patient is due to malaria.
The many cases in a short course of time within a limited area with
fever and diarrhea as the main symptoms more suggest a waterborne
outbreak of, for instance, Shigella. - Mod.EP]
[The interactive HealthMap/ProMED map for Venezuela is available at:
<http://healthmap.org/r/0ehh> - CopyEd.EJP]
