Unknown illness kills three indigenous children

The Ministry of Health has started an investigation into the deaths and the cases of infection with a still unidentified disease that afflicted Assurini Indians from the Trocará village, in the southeast of Pará. Three children from the tribe died, and five had to be hospitalized.

According to local health officials, the patients were seen to have their respiratory tract infected, suffer from coughing and fever, and breathe with difficulty. The results of the first examinations ruled out H1N1, metapneumovirus, syncytial virus (which causes bronchiolitis) and whooping cough. Well-known sicknesses, like common cold and mumps, are still a possibility.

Of the three fatalities, one took place on Thursday (20) and another on Friday (22). The third child died while being transferred to Belém, state capital of Pará, on Saturday (23). Experts from the Special Secretariat of Indigenous Health (“Sesai”) have been sent from Brasília in an attempt to offer aid to the local teams and help the investigation.

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira