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Aug 12, 2009 02:00 PM | 5
Swine flu has been reported for the first time in Amazonian Indians, raising fears that the virus will cause more contagion and potential deaths in tribal groups around the world.
Seven members of the Matsigenka tribe in the Peruvian Amazon have tested positive for H1N1, the first example of the virus in Amazonian peoples, according to the human rights group Survival International.
Indigenous communities have little to no immunity to outside pathogens, which is why many Native Americans succumbed to disease when Europeans first arrived on the continent
Indeed, swine flu deaths are already stacking up in tribes around the world. Last month, H1N1 took its first casualty in Australia, a 26-year-old Aboriginal man in Kiwirrkurra, one of the country’s most remote Outback communities, the BBC reported.
Aborigines are being hospitalized at five times the rate of the general population.
In Manitoba, Canada, swine flu has struck First Nations people at a rate seven times that of the general population, and Inuit people have been infected at a rate 70 times greater than the general population, or about 1 in 10. Canada's indigenous people were heavily hit during the 1918 Spanish flu.
Ethan Rubinstein, an infectious disease expert at the University of Manitoba told the Agence France Presse, "I don't expect the death rate [for the H1N1 swine flu] to be even close to 1918, but the spread of the disease may still be like that."
Image of Matsigenka courtesy J. Mazower/Survival International
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5 Comments
Add Commentnow we are close to wipe out all indigenous folks in all continents! shame on us!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisRonflank... I have a totally different take on the spread of this disease, it reveals that we are all totally interconnected. I take no shame in that my ancestors are the indigenous folks from Europe. My ancestors suffered the ravages of various diseases and the survivors passed on their immunities. HIV connects us ALL to the original homeland of Africa, even connecting us to our distant relatives, the primates. The entire worldwide network of medical practitioners continues to search for and share cures and preventions. One world, one people, one species, and countless cultures.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisRonflank... I have a totally different take on the spread of this disease, it reveals that we are all totally interconnected. I take no shame in that my ancestors are the indigenous folks from Europe. My ancestors suffered the ravages of various diseases and the survivors passed on their immunities. HIV connects us ALL to the original homeland of Africa, even connecting us to our distant relatives, the primates. The entire worldwide network of medical practitioners continues to search for and share cures and preventions. One world, one people, one species, and countless cultures.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI agree with the blogger who wrote that surely we have the technology to detect sending duplicate identical comments and have the second one automatically deleted. I didn't send the message twice, I was trying to close the window and regress. I apologize to the readers anyway.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn few people severe complications like Influenza pneumonia (primary) may be encountered, which is life threatening. This is caused by the virus and can be dangerous if not treated immediately in a hospital. The viral infection destroys the respiratory tract lining and there in can allow bacterial infections. A secondary bacterial pneumonia may need antibiotic treatment in a hospital. Read more...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://www.manipalcureandcare.com/preventive/Flu-Influenza.aspx