Yanomami: mortality among children is 10 times higher than average

The infant mortality rate in the first year of life among the Yanomami population reached 114.3 per thousand births in 2020.

According to data from the United Nations (UN), this figure is 10 times higher than the Brazilian average and exceeds that of African countries such as Sierra Leone and Central African Republic, which are among the poorest in the world and have the highest infant mortality rates. Sierra Leone had, in 2020, a mortality rate of 80.5 per thousand; Central African Republic, 77 per thousand.

The Yanomami Mission report, published by the Ministry of Health, shows that newborn deaths accounted for almost 60% of deaths of children under one year of age between 2018 and 2022. This reveals, according to the document, failures in the attention to gestation, delivery and care received at birth. It also points to malnutrition as one of the main causes of infant death. The Yanomami Mission took place from January 15 to 25.

Sonia Lucena, PhD in Nutrition and retired professor at the Federal University of Pernambuco, explains that malnutrition seriously affects children's immunity.

"It is very common for a malnourished person to have an acute respiratory infection, sometimes pneumonia, and many times what kills a malnourished child is septicemia, because their organism, not being able to protect itself, also loses the conditions to recover from these diseases. And problems in the normal growth and development of the brain in this first stage of life are irrecoverable," said Sonia.

Data collected since 2015 point out that, in 2021, 56.5% of Yanomami children were underweight. Among pregnant women, nearly half were underweight in 2022.