The influenza pandemic threat to the Yanomami Indians of the Amazon

The Yanomami, Amazonian indigenous people in the 80 staged an international campaign in defense of their survival, are dying from influenza A. Seven people have already died in the last 15 days so it is a suspected outbreak of this disease and another thousand Yanomami may have been infected, according to Survival International.

It was the regional office of the World Health Organization (WHO) who has sounded a warning and confirmed the presence of influenza A in the area. The Venezuelan government has responded by isolating the area where the Yanomami live and sending medical teams to treat the sick.

All fear that the epidemic will spread by the Yanomami territory, shared by Venezuela and northern Brazil, which could increase the number of victims.

Not the first nor the only threat to a people already in the 80s was about to implode in a wave of prospectors who invaded their lands. Then, the Pro Yanomami Commission and Survival International launched an international campaign, which included artists such as Sting, to pressure governments to protect their rights.

On that occasion, Survival points out that a fifth of Indians died because of diseases like flu or malaria, which infected them miners.

The result of this international campaign was that, in Brazil, President Collor de Mello demarcation of Yanomami territory in 1992, an area twice the size of Switzerland. In Venezuela, too, live in a protected area, but find it increasingly difficult to live in isolation, as claimed.

Its estimated population is 32,000 people, around a border in which health care remains very precarious, due to the accessibility of the region is very limited.

Survival has issued a statement noting that the situation is critical: "Both governments must act immediately to stop the epidemic and improve health care for the Yanomami. Otherwise, we once again see hundreds of Yanomami dying. It's devastating for indigenous people seeking asylum, just as he was recovering from the epidemics that decimated them 20 years ago, "he says.