Report reveals 50% increase in Yanomami deaths in 2023

According to a report released by the Secretariat of Indigenous Health (Sesai), which is linked to the Ministry of Health, President Lula’s first year of government recorded 308 Yanomami deaths.

The number represents an increase of almost 50% in relation to the deaths recorded in the Sesai report for the year 2022, when they were recorded 209 deaths of Yanomami.

The current information was published by Sesai on December 21, 2023 with data collected until November. The number referring to deaths that occurred in 2022 was released at the beginning of last year and was used by the Lula government to accuse his predecessor, former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL), of “genocide” against the Yanomami people.

According to the report, 104 deaths were just babies under one year of age. Another 58 deaths were children between one and four years of age. In all, deaths of children up to 4 years of age correspond to 52.5% of the total.

The causes of deaths are diverse: Diseases of the respiratory system (66); external causes of morbidity and mortality (65); some infectious and parasitic diseases (63); endocrine, nutritional and metabolic diseases (35); symptoms, signs and abnormal findings from clinical and laboratory examinations, not classified elsewhere (25); and others (54).

As reported by People’s Gazette At the beginning of December last year, the government interrupted the periodic publication of reports on the situation of the Yanomami people shortly after an increase in the number of indigenous deaths was recorded.

Until September, bulletins from the Ministry of Health were weekly. Afterwards, publications would become monthly. However, the government went from October until December 20th without publishing the bulletins.

The bulletin published on October 4, 2023 indicated 215 Yanomami deaths in 2023 from various causes – at the time, the numbers had already surpassed the deaths of indigenous people throughout the entire year 2022.

According to the document, 53% of deaths were children up to 4 years of age. Of the total, 90 deaths were caused by infectious diseases; 29 due to malnutrition; 43 for “ill-defined” causes; 39 due to external causes; 4 due to problems with the digestive system, in addition to 10 neonatal deaths.

Wanted by Gazeta do Povo, in December last year, Sesai reported that “the change in the periodicity of the bulletin was due to the fact that the Yanomami emergency is in the third phase, with more robust and more structured actions”.

The Secretariat also said that it follows the World Health Organization (WHO) standard regarding the deadline for publishing health bulletins. “At the beginning of the Emergency, it (the bulletin) is daily. Afterwards, it becomes weekly and fortnightly. Finally, it is established as monthly considering the robustness of the shares.”

Government position

Wanted by People’s Gazette to comment on Sesai’s recent report, the Ministry of Health, through its advisory, reported a different number of Yanomami deaths than Sesai’s numbers. According to the statement, deaths in 2022 would have been 343 according to the Indigenous Health Care Information System (Siasi), which contrasts with the number of 209 from Sesai, which is part of the Ministry of Health itself.

In the government’s understanding, with the new numbers, there would have been a reduction in deaths in 2023, from 343 to 308. Click here to access the full note.