Epidemic fears as 80% of Indigenous Amazon tribe fall ill

Beto Marubo and Bruno Pereira speaking with the Indigenous peoples of the Korubo tribe in the Javari valley, in 2015. Photograph: Courtesy of Beto Marubo

More than 100 Indigenous people in Brazil’s Javari valley have been diagnosed with flu-like symptoms, raising fears that the situation could escalate into an epidemic.

The valley, where Indigenous advocate Bruno Pereira and journalist Dom Phillips were killed in 2022, is home to the largest population of Indigenous people in voluntary isolation and of recent contact worldwide. The Korubo people were first contacted by government officials in 1996, and they continue to live with little interaction with other Indigenous groups and local authorities.