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| Map showing location of cases and deaths |
RIO GRANDE — Fred, his younger sister and older brother live in the Elder’s Path neighborhood south of the Xoco tribe.
The family, which used to have five members, immigrated from Canada two years ago and chose the location of their home because it was close to the river and relatively safe from the crocodiles further to the north. However, it is directly downstream from the Xoco tribe.
In February, Fred returned home after hunting for pearls to find his mother and younger sister severely ill.
“They were shitting all over the place. They tried to make it to the outhouse, but most times they were not fast enough, or the other one was using it,” Fred, who asked his last name not be used, told the Amazon River Sun.
His little sister, he said, managed to survive, but their mother died the next day. As he stood next to the family’s dilapidated outhouse telling the story, he began to sob.
“A doctor said she died of cholera. I thought that was only something that happened in American Western movies,” he said with tears running down his face.
The loss was especially hard, Fred’s brother Harry told the Sun, because their father died a year ago when he was caught in the crossfire of warring gangs.
Many people die every year in the jungle as a result of cholera and dysentery. A Sun analysis has found that cases of these diseases are heavily concentrated downriver from the area’s three largest tribes.
The Xoco are an especially large tribe but no toilets
are found anywhere in the tribe's camp.
Using data from interviews with medical professionals and healers, official government records, reports from residents living near the riverbanks, and some speculative guesses, the Sun identified the locations in which individuals experienced symptoms of cholera or dysentery in the last two years.
The data shows these cases are found most frequently in areas downriver from the Jurito, Xoco and Tapirape tribes. Areas are Gallivant’s Clearing, which these tribes' members regularly frequent, also showed a high concentration of cases.
Official death records and reports from families show that deaths from these diseases are also concentrated in the same areas downriver from major native tribes.
The Sun investigated the camps of all three of these tribes and did not find a single outhouse or indoor lavatory of any kind.
Within the culture of these tribes is a deep suspicion of bathroom facilities, even basic outhouses. Natives of the area will also eschew more advanced sanitary developments, such as indoor plumbing and flushing toilets.
Aerial view of the Tapirape camp showing absolutely
no bathroom facilities.
When natives defecate where ever they happen to be at the moment, as they insist on doing, rains wash the contamination into the river, where it travels downstream and spreads to residents in its path.
Like cholera, dysentery, also known as the bloody flux, is caused by unsanitary practices. It causes bloody diarrhea, which can lead to deadly dehydration.
The Sun entered every cottage at the Jurito camp
but did not find any toilets.
Experts say that, as long as the natives consider sanitary practices “unnatural,” people living downriver from native population centers should boil their water for at least 20 minutes before drinking, bathing or cooking with it. Iodine purification tablets can also be used to make water safe from natives.
Health experts also warn that anyone living downriver from these tribes who experiences the symptoms of these diseases should seek medical help immediately. While native healers, who refer to diarrheal diseases as “the runs,” can treat these illnesses, experts say it’s best to be treated a medical professional trained in modern medicine.
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