The virus is expensive in the Brazilian Amazon

The virus is extremely high in the Amazon region and in people who have been dependent on its abundance for generations, as a pandemic attacks Brazil, overwhelming more than 2 million infections and more than 84,000 deaths. I’m making a sacrifice.

In Brazil, all six cities with the highest exposure to coronaviruses are along the Amazon River, according to a vast new study by Brazilian researchers who measured antibodies to the population.

The epidemic spread so quickly and drastically along the river that remote people like Tefe could be infected with the virus by as much as New York City, one of the worst outbreaks in the world. The chances of getting infected are high.

“It was all very fast,” Isabel Delgard, 34, his father Felicindo, died of a virus shortly after getting sick in a small town in Koali. Born in the river, he nourished his family and made living furniture from riverbank timber.

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In the past four months, vulnerable healthcare systems have raged as epidemics have moved into deeper villages from Manaus, Brazil’s largest city in the Amazon, to skyscrapers and factories. Cities and towns along the river have the highest number of deaths per capita in the country, often several times the national average.

The virus has done as much damage to indigenous peoples as it has in the past. Since the 1500s, waves of explorers have traveled the river, seeking gold, land, and convert. After that, rubber was a resource that helped to accelerate the industrial revolution and change the world. But with them, these outsiders caused violence and disease such as smallpox and measles, killing millions and clearing the entire community.

“This is a place that has created a lot of wealth for others,” said Charles Mann, a journalist who wrote extensively about America’s history, and see what’s happening with it.

According to a Brazilian study, indigenous people are about six times more likely to be infected with coronaviruses and die in remote river villages unaffected by electricity.

The area’s ability to fight the virus is further weakened under President Jail Bolsonaro, who publicly dismissed the infectious disease, despite testing himself positive.

The virus soared during his government surveillance and tore the country. From the first day of his inauguration, Bolsonaro clarified that protecting the well-being of the indigenous community was not his priority, curtailing their funding, countering their protection, and encouraging illegal invasion of their territory. did.

The Brazilian Amazon crisis began in Manaus, a city of 2.2 million people. Manaus rises out of the woods in irregular bursts of concrete and glass, tapering at its edge towards a cluster of stilt stilt wooden houses by the water.

Manaus, the capital of the state of Amazonas, is now a major producer of motorcycles and an industrial power plant with many foreign companies. It is closely connected to the rest of the world-its international airport sees about 250,000 passengers a month-and goes through rivers to most of the Amazon region.

The first documented case of Manaus, confirmed on March 13, came from England. According to city health officials, the patient had mild symptoms and was quarantined in the wealthy area of ​​his home town.

But soon, the virus appeared to be everywhere.

“We didn’t have any more beds, or even armchairs,” Dr. Alvaro Keiros (26) said of the days when his public hospital in Manaus was completely full. “People did not stop coming.”

At least 570 indigenous people in Brazil have died of the disease since March, according to an association representing Brazilian indigenous people. Most of their deaths were places connected to the river.

More than 18,000 indigenous people are infected. Community leaders report that the entire hammock-entrapped village is struggling to get up, even to feed its children.