"H1N1 has now reached an indigenous group deep in the Amazon. A thousand members of the Yanomami tribe are believed to have caught the flu, seven have died.

The government of Venezuela has sealed off part of the rainforest to prevent the flu from decimating the Yanomami Indians.

Survival International is a London based indigenous rights group. It's research and field director, Fiona Watson believes the flu came in through Novaka, an area in the Yanomami territory which has the most contact with the outside world.

"There's an air strip there, there's a Catholic mission station so people who are working with the Yanomami or visiting for whatever reason, it could be doctors, government officials, people working on health and education programs, come in and out so I think it has come in that way," said Watson.

According to Watson, the Yanomami are the largest of the isolated indigenous groups in the Amazon rainforest. There are about 32 thousand Brazil and Venezuela.

"They've lived there for hundreds, if not thousands of years," said Watson. "They live by hunting and gathering and they're very much a people who are living in the forest, completely self-sufficient, and came into contact with outsiders really in any great way from the fifties onwards. And the Yanomami have very little immunity; many Amazonian tribes, remote tribes, have very little immunity to common diseases you know, which for us don't present too much of a problem like the common cold or flu. They haven't had this immunity because they’ve been so isolated."

The Yanomami have suffered from other epidemics in the past that were introduced from outside their community. Said Watson, in the fifties, border commission authorities and missionaries brought measles."

Get the Story:
H1N1 endangers Indians in the Amazon (Public Radio International 11/17)

Related Stories:
Artist Michael Kabotie dies from flu complications (10/26)
Wind River Reservation schools closed due to flu (10/15)
Swine flu probe links nurse to body bags (10/8)
Off-reserve Natives eye flu vaccine priority (10/7)
BIE school first in New Mexico to close for flu (09/25)
BIE school closed for large number of flu cases (9/24)
Swine flu reported at Oglala Sioux Tribe school (9/23)
Body bag apology not enough for First Nations (9/18)
First Nations receive body bags in swine flu kits (9/16)
BIE tells schools with swine flu cases to close (9/15)
Utah tribes receive money for swine flu campaign (9/4)
Canada vows Native priority for swine flu vaccine (9/1)
First Nation cancels meeting over swine flu (8/18)
Fort Belknap Reservation hit with swine flu (8/14)
Remote tribe in Peru sees cases of swine flu (8/13)
First Nations raising money to fight swine flu (07/17)
Native woman in Saskatchewan dies of swine flu (7/14)
Swine flu among Natives worries prime minister (06/26)
First Nations declare emergency over swine flu (6/25)
First Nations denied hand sanitizer despite flu (6/24)
Native woman in Manitoba dies after flu illness (6/22)
Another swine flu case among Manitoba Natives (06/10)
Natives in Manitoba hit by severe flu breakout (6/9)
First Nation in Manitoba confirms swine flu (06/05)
IHS confirms three cases of swine flu in Navajo area (5/21)
Swine flu death reported on Gila River Reservation (5/20)
Chippewa Cree Tribe reports case of swine flu (5/18)
IHS confirms swine flu case on Navajo Nation (5/13)
Indian Country largely spared from swine flu virus (5/12)
Mille Lacs Band reports possible case of swine flu (5/7)
Lac du Flambeau Band responds to swine flu concerns (5/5)