Team from the Ministry of Health diagnoses the health situation of the Yanomami indigenous people, in Roraima

Gabriel Abreu – Cenarium Magazine

MANAUS – A team from the Ministry of Health (MH) is on Wednesday, 18, in the Surukuku community, in the Yanomami Indigenous Land (TI), in Roraima, to monitor and prepare a survey on the health situation of indigenous people. According to the MH, this strategy is used to reestablish access to quality health care for indigenous people, since the region is plagued by the invasion of illegal miners.

Two technical teams are working in the region. One is concentrated in the capital Boa Vista, working with the Special Indigenous Health District (Dsei) Yanomami, the Indigenous Health House (Casai), Roraima’s State Health Secretariat and Boa Vista’s Municipal Health Secretariat. The other, called the field team, visits the Surucucu and Xitei Base Poles. As these are regions of difficult access, the arrival at the site is by air, carried out with aircraft of the Brazilian Air Force due to the partnership.

The technicians are analyzing the health situation in the region, the services provided, and the supplies available, in order to map out the population’s health needs and demands. “With this data, the Ministry of Health will prepare a complete diagnosis of the indigenous territory and define the immediate actions that need to be taken to overcome the health crisis and strengthen the care offered by the Special Indigenous Health District Yanomami”, said in a statement the MS.

Neglect in the villages

For indigenous leader Junior Hekurari Yanomami, much of this scenario could be reversed with more robust actions by the federal government. He recalls the photo of a weakened indigenous child, suffering from malaria, pneumonia, worms and malnutrition, published by a missionary last year. A faithful portrait of the lack of assistance and the advance of hunger.

“That image shown last year (…) is in the same situation [the reality in the Yanomami Indigenous Land]. We, the indigenous people, are asking. We, the indigenous people, are screaming, asking for help. Someone needs to hear our voice to save the indigenous population, the child population (…) these children need to be saved”, Júnior Hekurari said.

Investigation

In November, the Federal Police (PF) launched Operation Yoasi, with the objective of investigating a scheme to divert federal public resources from the Special Indigenous Health District Yanomami (DSEI-Y), in the state of Roraima (RR). Yoasi, for the Yanomami, is Omama’s brother and responsible for the death in the world.

The police investigation was initiated after receiving a civil inquiry conducted by the Federal Public Ministry (MPF), which investigated press reports of a lack of medication for malaria and verminosis in the Yanomami Indigenous Land. Among other irregularities, the MPF identified the receipt of the vermifuge albendazole in quantities lower than the amount acquired by the organization.

The suspicions are that only 30% of more than 90 types of medicines supplied by one of the companies contracted by the DSEI-Y were duly delivered. With the support of public agents, the receipt of the deliveries would be fraudulent and would indicate full compliance with the contract.

The scheme implemented at the DSEI-Y is said to have left 10,193 children unattended, resulting in an increase in infections and manifestations of serious forms of the disease, with children expelling worms through their mouths.