Malaria Cases Increasing Among Brazil’s Yanomami Indians; Government Not Providing Adequate Health Care, Advocate Says

The number of malaria cases among the Yanomami Indians in Brazil has been increasing since 2003, in part because the government is not providing the population with adequate health care services, Claudio Esteves of the Pro Yanomami Commission said on Wednesday, the Associated Press reports. About 1,400 malaria cases among the Yanomami were reported in 2005 -- a more than two-fold increase over the 622 cases reported in 2004, according to the commission. Malaria cases also have been reported in areas of the northern Amazon rainforest where health officials thought the disease had been eradicated. In addition, Yanomami living with the disease are more likely to contract respiratory diseases such as tuberculosis, Esteves said. He added that malaria also puts the Yanomami at an increased risk of starvation because the disease prevents them from farming and hunting, and the group does not store food (Astor, Associated Press, 1/18).