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Virus Heads Upriver in Brazil Amazon, Sickens Native People

Associated Press

   MANAUS, BRAZIL - In the remote Amazon community of Betania, Tikuna
   tribe members suspect the coronavirus arrived this month after some
   returned from a two-hour boat trip down the Solimoes River to pick up
   their government benefit payments.

   Dozens subsequently got headaches, fevers and coughs. Two died. And the
   five government medical workers for the community of about 4,000 are
   not treating the sick because they lack protective equipment and
   coronavirus tests, said Sinésio Tikuna, a village leader.

   So the Tikuna rely on their traditional remedy for respiratory
   ailments: Inhaling clouds of smoke from burning medicinal plants and
   beehives.

   The Tikuna's plight illustrates the danger from the coronavirus as it
   spreads to rainforest areas where tribe members live in close quarters
   with limited medical services. Most are reachable only by boat or small
   aircraft.

   "We're very worried, mainly because help isn't arriving," Sinésio
   Tikuna said in a telephone interview.

   Brazil has Latin America's highest COVID-19 death toll, with more than
   15,000 as of Sunday. The country's hardest hit major city per capita is
   in the Amazon -- Manaus, where mass graves are filling up with bodies.

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