Unknown outbreak - India - Disease strikes 16% of isolated Andaman tribe
Posted in: enart.nnmj.com Date: March 14th, 2010
INDIA: Disease strikes 16% of isolated Andaman tribe 10 Mai 2006
Forty-two children from the isolated Jarawa (http://www.survivalfrance.org/tribes.php?tribe_id=37) tribe of the Andaman Islands have been hit by disease in the last three weeks, in an epidemic which could wipe them out. The figure represents 16 percent of the tribe's total population of 270.
Survival received reports last week that seven Jarawa children were in hospital with measles. The local authorities have since denied any recent outbreak of measles among the Jarawa, and have said that several had been suffering from ‘heat rash'. When 108 Jarawa contracted measles in 1999, the same authorities denied that the Jarawa had had measles, but were forced to concede several weeks later following the testimony of doctors on the islands.
A reliable source informed Survival today that 17 Jarawa children are currently in G B Pant Hospital in the town of Port Blair, in a ward guarded by police. The children are reported to be suffering from various diseases including pneumonia and eye problems - both common after-affects of measles. Twenty-five others were admitted to the hospital on 22 April, and were taken back to their forest several days later.
Many tribal peoples have been destroyed by measles. In the 19th century, it wiped out at least half of the Great Andamanese (http://www.survivalfrance.org/related_material.php?id=92) on one island and all those on another island. That tribe, once 5,000 strong, now numbers only 41 people.
Indian settlers invading their land increasingly threaten the Jarawa's survival. As well as bringing previously unknown diseases, the settlers poach the game the Jarawa depend on, and there has been sexual abuse of Jarawa women. In 2002, the supreme court ordered the closure of the road that cuts illegally through the Jarawa forest, but the authorities have defied this, not only keeping the road open but actually widening it. Survival has repeatedly warned that this puts the Jarawa at grave risk of potentially fatal diseases.
Survival's director Stephen Corry said today, ‘By failing to abide by its own laws protecting the Jarawa, India risks wiping this unique tribe out forever. The road must be closed and land invasion and poaching stopped, before it is too late.'
To write a letter to the Indian authorities click here (http://www.survival-international.org/how_to_help.php?howto_help_id=39)
Photos and footage available. For more information call Miriam Ross on (+44) (0)20 7687 8734 or email mr@survival-international.org (mr@survival-international.org)
Doctors on the Andaman Islands have confirmed that members of the Jarawa tribe have been suffering from measles. The local authorities had denied that there had been an outbreak of measles within the tribe, claiming instead that a number of Jarawa had ‘heat rash'.
A large number of Jarawa children have been admitted to G. B. Pant Hospital in the town of Port Blair in the past month, with various diseases including pneumonia and eye problems - both common after-effects of measles. All have now been returned to their forest. Doctors told the BBC this week that the children were in fact suffering from measles.
When 108 Jarawa contracted measles in 1999, the local authorities also denied that the Jarawa had had the disease, but were forced to concede several weeks later following the testimony of doctors on the islands. Survival has repeatedly warned that the authorities' failure to keep outsiders out of the Jarawa reserve, and to close the road that runs illegally through the reserve, put the Jarawa at risk of potentially fatal diseases.
Diseases like measles have wiped out many tribal peoples worldwide. In the 19th century, the disease wiped out at least half of the Great Andamanese on one island and all those on another island. That tribe, once 5,000 strong, now numbers only 41 people. In 1978, following the construction of a highway through their forest, four Yanomami communities in Brazil lost 50% of their population to measles.
To write a letter to the Indian authorities click here
Photos and footage available. For more information call Miriam Ross on (+44) (0)20 7687 8734 or email mr@survival-international.org
http://www.survivalfrance.org/news.php?id=1614
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