Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Fides Service) - At least 60 per cent of the people in the small town on Mancio Lima, Acre state, Brazil, have malaria due to severe prolonged drought in the Amazon region.
In recent weeks over 30,000 cases have been reported in the area but the number may be twice as high since many remote villages are isolated and without medical assistance.
Yellow Fever, thought to have been almost eradicated, has returned and there are increasing reports of cases of mycosis. But health authorities in the state of Amazonas are chiefly concerned about gastroenteritis caused mainly by lack of clean water. At least eleven children have died and new cases are reported every day.
Shortage of medicine due to poor communications in a region where transport is fluvial, renders the ever more critical situation an emergency in 79 villages in the Amazon basin.
In fact the drought considered the worst in 50 years, now threatens to become the worst the Amazon has ever known. In some townships where people use boats to move about, they now have to walk as far as 15km on dry mud to the nearest water hole or clean water source.
Food is also difficult to find: fishing has stopped and there have been no food supplies, which come by river, for over a month. Boats cannot sail upstream, many are grounded in river ports or abandoned after running aground at some point of the journey. At Manaus where 12 cargo ships usually dock every week, there has been no ship for 6 weeks and the port’s fleet of 170 fishing boats is stuck in the harbour. (AP) (27/10/2005 Agenzia Fides; Righe:28; Parole:323)
