Health status of the Yanomami is still ‘worrisome’ – 05/31/2023 – Health

More than four months after the declaration of a state of health emergency in the Yanomami indigenous reserve, the situation has improved, but it remains worrying, Health Minister Nísia Trindade told AFP.

“We’ve had improvements, yes, we’ve seen a recovery in malnutrition rates, which was one of the most drastic situations we’ve encountered. But we still have a large number of cases of malaria, 6,735 this year, with eight deaths. concern,” explained the minister in a telephone interview.

The state of health emergency was declared on January 21, three weeks after Lula’s inauguration.
In the process, an investigation for genocide was opened, after the publication of official data that reported the death, in 2022, of one hundred children under five years old in the largest indigenous reserve in the country, where 30,400 indigenous people live, in Roraima.

The images of children with skeletal bodies moved the whole world.

The size of Portugal, the territory of the Yanomami has been in a critical situation for years, due to invasions by gold miners.

The indigenous people accuse them of raping and murdering members of their community, while depriving them of one of their main livelihoods, fishing, by contaminating rivers with mercury.

Lula’s government sent the army to expel the miners in February, but many illegal mines continue to operate in the reserve.

The field hospital installed in January by the Air Force in Boa Vista to reinforce care for indigenous peoples is still operating.

In April, a health center was inaugurated in Sururucu, within the reserve. According to the Ministry of Health, 91 malnourished children were cured after being treated there.

“It is a worrying factor, because it is important to emphasize that this emergency was defined by a situation of lack of assistance, because there was a lack of attention, for basic care, primary health care”, said Trindade.

Last week, the minister traveled to Geneva (SUI), where the World Health Organization (WHO) supported a resolution presented by Brazil that makes the health of indigenous peoples a global priority.

“This resolution represents that it will be possible, first, a recognition that there is a specific question of indigenous peoples, which general resolutions do not deal with”, he assured.

“In many countries, like Brazil, indicators such as infant mortality, maternal mortality, life expectancy, are among the lowest among indigenous people, in relation to the population as a whole.”