Members of a remote tribe made contact with another tribe. Photo from FUNAI

Remote tribes in Peru are moving into Brazil to avoid drug trafficking and illegal loggers, according to government officials and advocate groups.

The countries share a long border in the Amazon. At least 77 "uncontacted " tribes are believed to live in the region, including seven members that left their home in Peru and showed up in a Indian village in Brazil last month.

"There's certainly a lot of invasion of indigenous peoples lands on the Peru side. We know that there are drug traffickers trafficking cocaine and cocoa plants have been planted there," Fiona Watson, a field and research director for Survival International said on NPR.

Brazil's Indian affairs department, known as FUNAI, treated the seven members -- five men and two women who were said to range in age from 12 or 13 to 21 -- for the flu. Officials were worried that they could have infected the rest of their tribe.

“They thought they could die," Douglas Rodrigues, a physician who helped FUNAI with the tribe, told The Washington Post. "Although their immune system works as well as yours or mine, for them, respiratory illnesses are completely new.”

After receiving treatment, officials said the tribal members were going to return to their village.

Get the Story:
In Brazil, government, health groups work to shield isolated Indian tribes from disease (The Washington Post 7/24)
Out Of The Amazon, Uncontacted Indians Face Diseases Of A New World (NPR 7/23)

Related Stories:
Members of remote tribe receive care before heading home (7/22)