Over 1,000 Yanomami Were Rescued so As Not to Die, Says Indigenous Health Secretary
The secretary of Indigenous Health at the Ministry of Health, Ricardo Weibe Tapeba, classified the public health scenario in the Yanomami communities as alarming, said that more than a thousand indigenous people were rescued and stated that there is an underreporting of disease cases. "We believe that over a thousand indigenous people have been rescued from the territory in recent days so as not to die. [...] We believe that there is even a very large underreporting [of diseases]", stated Tabepa in Boa Vista (Roraima). The Secretary of Indigenous Health participated in an incursion into three Yanomami communities with the support of the Brazilian Air Force and stated that they have been facing a war scenario. A region with 30,000 inhabitants in Roraima, the Yanomami Indigenous Land is experiencing an explosion in cases of malaria, the incidence of easily preventable worms, respiratory infections, and an increase in serious cases of malnutrition, especially among children and the elderly. The lack of health care in the territory has been aggravated by the permanence of more than 20,000 prospectors that have invaded the demarcated area.