The Peruvian Times (English) has a good write-up regarding the arrival of the pig flu in the remote villages of the Amazons:
Last week, Peru’s Health Ministry reported that seven Matsiguenga tribe natives living along Peru’s Urubamba River tested positive for swine flu. These natives have intermittent contact with more isolated and vulnerable tribes, living deep in Peru’s jungle.
The situation is being dealt with poorly according to tribe members who have asked for government help, and to make matters worse, this could be just the tip of the iceberg:
“The arrival of swine flu amongst the Matsiguenga is especially worrying as they are known to have intermittent contact with quite isolated Indian groups living nearby,” said Anthropologist Dr. Glenn Shepard, an expert on the Matsiguenga natives.
At the time of writing, over 6100 people in Peru are effected with H1N1 and 62 have died. Let’s hope that this vulnerable populations do not face even more serious dangers…
Read the entire article here.