UPI Science News: [TB Epidemic Hits Yanomami Indians]

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1997. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

UPI Science News: [TB Epidemic Hits Yanomami Indians]

United Press International (11/24/97)
Bovsun, Mara

Abstract: Scientists from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York say the Yanomami, a tribe of warrior Indians of the Amazon, may be wiped out by a tuberculosis epidemic and a level of active TB that is substantially higher than that found among other Brazilians. In the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers report that the level of active TB among the Yanomami is about 6.4 percent, about 100 times higher, and appears to be impervious to vaccines. The disease apparently hits the Yanomami harder than it does other populations because the tribe had no contact with the infection until the 1980s and, therefore, had no natural immunity. Meanwhile, other groups have had centuries of exposure. Dr. Alexandra Sousa says the Yanomami may be the "last population on Earth" isolated from TB. She adds that there are only 9,000 Yanomami in Brazil and another tribe of similar size in Venezuela.

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