Amazon Swine Flu 亞馬遜土著部落受豬流感襲擊

By Will Grant, BBC News

媒體英語會帶大家一起學習BBC撰稿人在報道世界大事時常用到的單詞和短語。

Background: 據報道南美洲亞馬遜的土著部落被傳染上了豬流感病毒。位于巴西及委內瑞拉交界處的 Yanomami (亞諾瑪米部落)里，有七名土著人已經不幸死于豬流感，而且有可能數百名其他土著人也被傳染了。委內瑞拉政府還沒有正式確認死亡人數和原因，但已經派遣專 家組到該地區進行調查。

An outbreak of swine flu among the relatively isolated tribes of the Amazon is of particular concern to the authorities because of the potential speed with which it could spread among the indigenous population.

Now the London-based international organisation, Survival, says that is already happening among the Yanomami Indians in the border region between Venezuela and Brazil.

The NGO claims that seven members of the Yanomami in Venezuela have died from the H1N1 virus and that hundreds more have been infected.

The organisation's director, Stephen Corry, says the situation is critical and called for Venezuela and Brazil to take immediate action to halt the epidemic and to radically improve healthcare to the Yanomami.

The Venezuelan government would not confirm the outbreak but said that a team was in the region investigating the claims.

However a member of the regional government's medical team, Miguel Hernandez, has told the BBC that swine flu was the suspected cause of the deaths of a pregnant woman and three small children.

The Yanomami have been hurt by epidemics in the past, particularly when influenza and malaria were brought by miners in the 1980s.

Survival International estimates that as much as a fifth of the community was killed during that period and that the Yanomami population has fallen to around 32,000 people.