Vitorino Luciana Cristina, de Souza Ueric José Borges, Oliveira Reis Mateus Neri, Bessa Layara Alexandre
Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, Goiano Federal Institute, Rio Verde-GO, Brasil.
Bioinformatics and Biotechnology Laboratory, Federal University of Tocantins, Gurupi-TO, Brasil.
PLOS Glob Public Health. 2022 Mar 7;2(3):e0000166. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgph.0000166. eCollection 2022.
The vegetation loss in the Brazil's Legal Amazon (BLA) in 2020 corresponds to the highest loss observed in a decade, caused by the intensification of fires, mineral extraction activities, and other pressures. The possibility of earning from illegal activities such as deforestation and mining attracts the population to indigenous territories, while fires aggravate respiratory problems and enhance the current COVID-19 crisis. Furthermore, the BLA's road network is usually related to increased deforestation and fires in its areas of influence, and airports are known to contribute to spreading COVID-19 infections worldwide. Therefore, we decided to evaluate the effect of characteristics of Special Indigenous Health Districts (DSEIs) (including population, number of airports, and extent of the road network) and vegetation loss rates (deforestation, and area of vegetation lost by fires and mining) on the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths among the indigenous population in DSEIs in the BLA. We observed a positive correlation between the number of cases and deaths and the number of Indigenous Primary Healthcare Units, suggesting that many of these units did not increase appropriate activities for prevention and protection from COVID-19 in the DSEIs. The DSEIs with larger air transport and road networks were more affected by COVID-19. These networks constituted critical mechanisms for facilitating the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in the BLA. Additionally, we noted that changes that impact the landscape of DSEIs, such as fires and mining, also impact legal indigenous areas (IAs). Thus, IAs are not spared from exploratory processes in the district's landscape. Models that associate the air transport and road networks with the transformation of the landscape in IAs from burning or mining can explain the number of indigenous people who died due to COVID-19. These results are particularly important given the current disruptive scenario imposed by the Brazilian government on critical institutions that detect and fight fires in indigenous lands and the policies enacted to combat COVID-19 in Brazil, which are based on denying isolation measures and delaying vaccinations.
2020年巴西法定亚马逊地区（BLA）的植被损失达到了十年来的最高水平，这是由火灾加剧、矿产开采活动及其他压力造成的。诸如森林砍伐和采矿等非法活动带来的获利可能性吸引人们进入原住民领地，而火灾则加剧了呼吸道问题并使当前的新冠疫情危机恶化。此外，BLA的道路网络通常与其影响区域内森林砍伐和火灾的增加有关，而且机场被认为是新冠病毒在全球传播的一个因素。因此，我们决定评估特殊原住民健康区（DSEIs）的特征（包括人口、机场数量和道路网络范围）以及植被损失率（森林砍伐、火灾和采矿造成的植被损失面积）对BLA地区DSEIs内原住民新冠病例数和死亡数的影响。我们观察到病例数和死亡数与原住民初级保健单位数量之间存在正相关，这表明这些单位中的许多并未在DSEIs中增加针对新冠病毒的预防和保护的适当活动。拥有更大航空运输和道路网络的DSEIs受新冠疫情影响更大。这些网络是促进新冠病毒在BLA传播的关键机制。此外，我们注意到影响DSEIs景观的变化，如火灾和采矿，也会影响合法的原住民地区（IAs）。因此，IAs未能免受该地区景观探索过程的影响。将航空运输和道路网络与IAs因燃烧或采矿导致的景观变化相关联的模型可以解释因新冠病毒死亡的原住民人数。鉴于巴西政府目前对在原住民土地上探测和扑灭火灾的关键机构施加的破坏性行为以及巴西为抗击新冠疫情而制定的政策（这些政策基于拒绝隔离措施和推迟疫苗接种），这些结果尤为重要。
