The death of Alvanei Xirixana, a 15-year-old from the Yanomami community who spent nearly a week in intensive care after contracting coronavirus, has heightened fears among some that the disease could wipe out indigenous people living in the Amazon, according to The Guardian.

People aren't sure how the teen, who lived outside of the reserve, contracted coronavirus.

According to the website Amazônia Real, the 70-person village was isolated, along with Xirixana’s parents, five health workers and a pilot.

Some people, however, suspect the disease was introduced to the community after 20,000 illegal gold miners began work in the Yanomami village, which sits along the border between Brazil and Venezuela.

Brazilian public health physician Sofia Mendonça works with indigenous communities and says removing the intruders from the area will be vital for the survival of the indigenous people.

“If we don’t get these people out of the [indigenous] areas the chance of contagion is much greater,” Mendonça warned.

The teen's death on Thursday from coronavirus stoked fear among many Yanomami people that the disease could wipe out their community. It also reignited memories of when the measles nearly wiped them out in 1970s and 1980s.

Carlo Zaquini​, an Italian missionary, has worked in Yanomami in Brazil for over 50 years. He believes gold miners and roadbuilders brought measles into the community during that period.

“It was like driving a bulldozer into a glass factory. Everything was shattered. It was one epidemic after another,” Zaquini, 82, told The Guardian. “In some of the villages I knew measles killed 50% of the population. If Covid does the same thing it would be a massacre.” 

Today, health officials in Brazil have identified 24 suspected coronavirus cases within the 850,000 indigenous population, according to Agencia Brasil.

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