Brasília, June 7, 2004 (Agência Brasil) - An acute syndrome, probably caused by the mixture of hepatitis B and D (delta) viruses, can, over the course of 20 years, wipe out the communities that occupy the second largest Indian reserve in Brazil, the Javari Valley. The alert is being sounded by Jecinaldo Satere-Mawé, president of the Coordination of Brazilian Amazon Indigenous Organizations (Coiab). There are no official statistics, nor even estimates, but, according to the Javari Valley Indigenous Council (Civaja), each week Indians are removed from the reserve to receive health care.
In 2003, 15 Indians from different communities died from the syndrome. According to the Civaja, the diagnosis is always the same: Acute Hemorrhagic Fever and Jaundice Syndrome. The organization reveals that blood tests to identify the presence of hepatitis virus were performed onl only two of the victims. The results were positive.
The Javari Valley reserve, the second largest in Brazil, is about the same size as Portugal. 3,500 Indians from the Kanamari, Kulina, Matis, Mayuruna, and Maruba ethic groups live there. There is only one health post in the entire territory, in the city of Atalaia do Norte. Access to the region is difficult, and transportation possibilities are limited, especially at certain times of the year.
HEMORRHAGIC HEPATITIS
Dr. Thor Dantos, a specialist in infectious and tropical diseases and director of the Rio Branco General Clinical Hospital, in the state of Acre, confirms that the Javari region is highly contaminated by various types of hepatitis virus. Among them, the virus responsible for hepatitis delta, a form of the disease that is very aggressive and hard to cure and which, in its acute form, is known to history as the "black plague of Labria."
The hepatitis delta virus can only manifest itself when it coexists in the organism with the hepatitis B virus. It is the union of these two infectious agents that causes the acute syndrome. The medications designed to combat the delta virus have proved ineffectual, achieving success in fewer than 10% of the cases and producing serious side effects. Nevertheless, the vaccine against hepatitis B is highly effective. This, in Dantos's opinion, can prevent the onset of "superinfection," the result of the combination of the two viruses in the human organism.
The manfestation of hepatitis delta leads to fever, general hemorrhaging, and numerous other symptoms. Various examinations are necessary to confirm the diagnosis. "Once the syndrome has appeared, the chances of saving the person's life are always close to zero. Only prevention, through vaccination and the use of condoms during sexual intercourse, can save these people, by avoiding simultaneous infection by types B and delta," the specialist warns.
FUNASA'S RESPONSIBILITY
The National Health Foundation (Funasa), the federal organ responsible for Indian health, is accused by the organizations in the Javari Valley of neglect in caring for victims of the syndrome. A charge with which backwoodsman Sidney Possuelo, general coordinator of Isolated Indians in the National Indian Foundation (Funai), concurs. In his view, if the same situation were confirmed in "any of the country's tiny towns," the health authorities would order a quarantine.
Iraneide Barros, general coordinator of Indian health care in the Funasa, refutes the criticisms. He claims that the organ has a policy for the region but encounters difficulties in putting it in practice. "We are working with only one boat," he declares, admitting that the institution is aware of the high degree of hepatitis contamination in the region. "However, not all of them showed symptoms of superinfection, a mixture of B and D-type viruses. They didn't die of hemorrhagic fever. We need to test for other diseases, such as hantavirus and even malaria," he argues.
Reporter: Beth Begonha
Translator: David Silberstein
