News / Brazil

Dozens of Yanomami children hospitalized in Brazil amid health crisis

Saturday, 28 January 2023 9:37 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 28 January 2023 10:45 AM ]

A Yanomami baby lies in a hammock in a children’s hospital in Roraima, Brazil, on January 26, 2023. (Photo by AP)

Dozens of indigenous children of Brazil’s Yanomami population in the Amazon rainforest, suffering from severe malnutrition and acute diseases, have been hospitalized in northern Brazil, as the federal government declared a public health emergency.

The health secretary of Boa Vista, the capital of Roraima state, said that 59 indigenous children were currently at the only pediatric hospital in the state.

Out of the total children being treated at the San Antonio children's hospital in Boa Vista in the northern state of Roraima, three-quarters of them are Yanomami, and eight of those are in intensive care, according to official data.

The vast majority of children are suffering from "moderate to severe malnutrition," complicated by other ailments including pneumonia, malaria, and the stomach flu, pediatrician Eugenio Patricio told AFP.

"These patients, due to malnutrition, don't have enough in the tank to fight infections. So the consequences are far more serious, and some end up in intensive care," he added.

Most of the Yanomami children, who are generally eight years old or younger, are about half the normal weight for their age -- and sometimes even less, Patricio explains.

"They are extremely weak when they arrive here," he says.

Officials have labeled the catastrophe as a “genocide”, and are blaming the administration of former president Jair Bolsonaro, for leaving them to die.

“The invaders contaminated and destroyed the rivers, and people have been drinking dirty water,” said the head of the local Yanomami health council, Junior Hekurari Yanomami, adding that malaria cases have also spiked in recent years.

The Yanomami calls on the government to combat the disease were not addressed by the officials, he said, accusing the Bolsonaro administration of “negligence”.

It was discovered on Thursday that the Supreme Court of Brazil had noticed signs that the Bolsonaro government had failed to comply with court decisions aimed at protecting the Yanomamis.

It is estimated that around 30,000 indigenous Yanomami people live in Brazil’s largest indigenous territory.

They are mostly dependent on hunting their own food, but ever since Bolsonaro's gold miners started arriving in their territory, they destroyed the natural habitat of the Yanomami people and led the region against Mother Nature.

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