Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Hepatitis and Malaria Decimate Amazon Indians

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RIO DE JANEIRO, Apr 14 2007 (IPS) - Hepatitis and malaria are killing the indigenous peoples of the Javari River basin, bordering Peru, and the Brazilian government faces charges of failing to provide health care for five tribes whose populations total some 3,000 people. “The report is nearly ready” for presentation in June to the United Nations, the Organization of American States and Amnesty International, says Jecinaldo Cabral, president of an Amazonian indigenous umbrella group, and coauthor of the claim, with the Javari Valley Indigenous Council.

The combination of two diseases that attack the liver “is decreasing the life expectancy” of the Indians, said Hilton Nascimento, ecologist and local educator with the Indigenist Work Center.

“There is a lack of organization” and dedication to vaccinate them, he told Tierramérica by phone.