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Indigenous Health
Research has found that unacculturated indigenous peoples have remarkable health compared to that of assimilated
tribal peoples, peasants, and many city dwellers. In the 1970s, an American team documented the health of the Waorani
at the time of contact. The team found no evidence of hypertension, anemia, heart disease, or cancer. In fact,
the Waorani "ranked as one of the few populations in the world where blood pressure does not increase with
age. The people had practically no internal parasites and virtually no secondary bacterial infections. They had
never been exposed to polio or pneumonia, nor was there any evidence that smallpox, chicken pox, typhus, or typhoid
fever affected the tribe. There was no syphilis, tuberculosis, malaria, or serum hepatitis" (Davis 1996).
However, the Waorani did have their ailments, typically fungal infections, external parasites, and various wounds
from snakebites, burns, spear injuries and the like. Most Waorani were in need of a good dentist and there was
a heavy presence of yellow fever, herpes, and hepatitis B.
"Rainforest" is used interchangeably with "rain forest" on this site. Same for "rainforests" and "rain forests". "Jungle" is generally not used.
Recent news
Amazon deforestation rate falls to lowest on record (8/10/2007) Deforestation rates in the Brazilian Amazon for the previous year were the lowest on record, according to preliminary figures released by INPE, Brazil's National Institute of Space Research.
Lowland rainforest less diverse than previously thought (8/9/2007) While rainforests are the world's libraries of biodiversity, species richness may be more evenly distributed in some forests than in others, reports an extensive new study by an international team of entomologists and botanists. The work, published in the current issue of the journal Nature, has important implications for forest management and conservation strategies.
Experts: parks effectively protect rainforest in Peru (8/9/2007) High-resolution satellite monitoring of the Amazon rainforest in Peru shows that land-use and conservation policies have had a measurable impact on deforestation rates. The research is published in the August 9, 2007, on-line edition of Science Express.
