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Colombia reports first virus cases in indigenous people
April 01 2020 10:27 PM
Thomson Reuters Foundation/Bogota
The first two cases of the coronavirus has been confirmed among Colombia’s indigenous people, local authorities said, fanning fears that the highly contagious disease could decimate vulnerable tribal communities.
The cases were found in two people from the Yukpa group who live in dire poverty in a cluster of makeshift shelters and tents in the northern border city of Cucuta, according to the National Indigenous Organisation of Colombia (ONIC), the country’s leading indigenous authority.
Health experts said they fear the coronavirus could spread rapidly among tribes who have little immunity to diseases common in the general population.
Their immune systems often are weakened as well by malnutrition, hepatitis B, diabetes and respiratory diseases like tuberculosis, experts say.
More:
https://www.gulf-times.com/story/659805/Colombia-reports-first-virus-cases-in-indigenous-p