A health crisis for Peru’s recently contacted people brings planetary health to the fore
Mongabay staff writer Aimee Gabay joins the Newscast this week to discuss her reporting trip to the Peruvian Amazon, where she spoke with the Indigenous Matsés community. She made the trip initially to examine environmental threats to Matsés territory. Instead, she found them suffering from an epidemic of malaria and hepatitis B, which they have […]
Peruvian Indigenous Matsés community faces a health crisis amid environmental threats, prompting planetary health awareness. During a reporting trip to the Peruvian Amazon, Mongabay staff writer Aimee Gabay encountered the Matsés community, initially investigating environmental dangers to their territory. However, the community has instead been grappling with an epidemic of malaria and hepatitis B, prompting them to request assistance from the Peruvian government.
Gabay notes that the Matsés people have experienced ongoing conflicts with outsiders, including rubber tappers entering their territory. In 1969, in an attempt to seek help and ease tensions, the Matsés chose to initiate contact with the outside world by reaching out to evangelical missionaries.
However, this contact exposed them to unfamiliar diseases that their immune systems had not built defenses against. Since then, the Matsés have experienced numerous epidemics, with their current malaria and hepatitis B outbreak being exacerbated by climate change, drought, and insufficient state support. The prolonged dry weather creates favorable conditions for malaria-transmitting mosquitoes to breed, while also reducing the river transit crucial for the Matsés to reach healthcare facilities.
Despite reaching the nearest major city to plead with the Peruvian government for aid, community members have been met with indifference.
Written by urgent.news from Mongabay's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
