Sentinel Island. How did they get covid?

[nayr69sg]

https://www.outlookindia.com/websit...t-precaution-not-taken-scientists-warn/397560

Covid-19 May Wipe Out Andaman Tribes If Utmost Precaution Not Taken, Scientists Warn​

A group of 11 scientists from 13 institutions across the world have sounded the alarm based on the genomic analysis of Indian populations.

In India, there are about 70 tribes who have been living in isolation for thousands of years. Besides A&N, they are spread in states like Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Bihar, Kerala etc. | Representational Image

Jeevan Prakash Sharma

Published: 13 Oct 2021, Updated: 13 Oct 2021 4:52 pm
Indigenous tribes of Andaman & Nicobar Islands, who have been living in isolation for tens of thousands of years, are under serious threat from the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes respiratory disease Covid-19.
A group of 11 scientists from 13 institutions across the world have sounded the alarm based on the genomic analysis of Indian populations.

The team investigated the high-density genomic data of about 1600 individuals from 227 populations across India and concluded that the genetic structure of indigenous tribes such as Onge and Jarawa of A&N makes them prone to Covid-19.
In India, there are about 70 such tribes who have been living in isolation for thousands of years. Besides A&N, they are spread in states like Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Bihar, Kerala etc.
“The genetic composition of these tribes vary from a normal population. Since their population is very small and cut off from the rest of the world for at least 25 thousand years, they have to choose their sexual partners among their close tribal members only (strict Endogamy),” Prof Chaubey from the Department of Zoology, Banaras Hindu University (BHU), said.
He added, “As the biological father and biological mother are from the same tribe or maybe most often close relatives, their children will inherit genes with the identical DNA sequence. They carry larger homozygous DNA.”
Prof Chaubey has co-led the study with Dr Kumarasamy Thangaraj from the Centre for Cellular & Molecular Biology (CCMB) under the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) and it has been published in the science journal Genes and Immunity.
This type of genetic makeup makes an individual not only susceptible to the virus but the fatality rate may also tend to be quite high. This is the first study of its kind that have used genomic data to predict the risk of Covid-19 on small and isolated tribal population.
Dr Thangaraj is of the view that since their population is already quite low, there is a high probability that Covid can wipe out their existence from the earth in case any of the members contract the virus.
Dr Thangaraj has been studying the genetic makeup of rare tribal populations for almost two decades and his first significant study published 15 years had revealed that A&N tribes were the first who migrated from Africa about 65,000 years ago.
“Since we already have the genetic samples of about 36 such tribes from our previous studies, we didn’t need to visit them and collect the sample afresh. We arrive at the conclusion on the basis of these 36 samples and their comparative study with other populations. Now the study applies to all approximately 70 tribes,” Dr Thangaraj said.
The team undertook the research after the news reports that the death rate among the indigenous groups of Brazil was double as compared to the normal population. The impact of the virus is so severe that many of the indigenous communities have reached the verge of extinction.
The unusual behaviour of the virus among the tribal population prompted these scientists to investigate their unique genetic aspect as the genes of an individual always play a key role in fighting against any disease.
“Results obtained from this study suggest that we need to have a high priority protection and utmost care for the isolated populations so that we don’t lose some of the living treasures of modern human evolution”, said Dr Vinay Kumar Nandicoori, Director, CCMB, Hyderabad.
These scientists fear that illegal intrusion by tourists can pose a threat to the existence of these tribes in the post-Covid era.
In November 2019, 27-year-old American tourist John Allen Chau landed in North Sentinel Island illegally and tried to contact Sentinelese tribes whose population is less than 150. They killed him with arrow shots on the beach before he could enter the island.
“Besides the intrusion of travellers, in many places, health care workers also visit them to provide health facilities. They can also be a carrier of the virus. So the government must ensure that whosoever visiting the area, he or she should not carry the pathogen,” Nandicoori added.
Other participants of this study include Prajjval Pratap Singh, Prof VN Mishra, Prof Royana Singh and Dr Abhishek Pathak from BHU, Varanasi; Dr Prashanth Suravajhala from Amrita University, Kerala; Pratheusa Machha from CSIR-CCMB, Hyderabad; Dr Rakesh Tamang from Calcutta University, Dr Ashutosh K Rai from Saudi Arabia, Dr Pankaj Shrivastava from FSL MP, and Prof Keshav K Singh from the University of Alabama USA.

 

[nayr69sg]

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/...t-remote-tribe-after-cases-confirmed-n1239045

'They're so vulnerable': Coronavirus hits tribes of isolated Andaman Islands​

“They represent one of the most ancient civilizations,” Anvita Abbi, a New Delhi-based linguist and social scientist, said.

Boat Island in the Andaman Islands, a remote Indian archipelago in the Bay of Bengal.Hari Kumar / AFP - Getty Images file


Sept. 2, 2020, 3:40 AM MDT
By Linda Givetash
An indigenous tribe on India’s Andaman Islands, whose population hovers just over 50 people, is now threatened by the coronavirus and experts fear uncontacted people on nearby islands could be next.
At least 10 people from the Great Andamanese tribe have tested positive for COVID-19 as of Friday and were being monitored in a hospital, according to Anvita Abbi, a New Delhi-based linguist and social scientist who is in contact with the community.

“It is spreading like fire,” Abbi told NBC News by phone. “What I gathered from them was that none of them had really serious symptoms. In fact, they all seem to be asymptomatic.”

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SEPT. 1, 202001:46

Those who are appearing to be ill are younger — in their late teens in some cases — and live in the archipelago’s largest city of Port Blair, she said. But concerns are rising over the possible exposure of the tribe’s elders who live on the remote Strait Island, which has some contact with the general population.
At least 3,160 people have tested positive for the virus across the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, according to local officials. Located southeast of Myanmar in the Bay of Bengal, they have a combined population of more than 400,000,
Cases are on the rise with 28 more cases confirmed Tuesday. Forty-six people there have died during the pandemic so far.
Dr. Avijit Roy, who is leading the fight against the outbreak in the islands, told Reuters last week that tests given to the Great Andamanese living on one of the coral reef islands confirmed four men were positive.
“They have been moved to hospital,” Roy said. Officials believe the men may have traveled to the main Andaman islands and caught the disease.
India’s Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Tribal Affairs did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

An Indian Navy boat patrols in the waters of the Andaman Sea near Port Blair, the capital of India's Andaman and Nicobar islands.Danish Siddiqui / Reuters file
Survival International, a British-based charity advocating indigenous rights worldwide, also said it received reports that at least five people among the Great Andamanese were infected.

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“It’s a huge concern because they’re so vulnerable, they've got so many already existing health problems,” Sophie Grig, a senior researcher for Survival International, said.
The tribe’s population has significantly dwindled from an estimated 5,000 people when the British colonists arrived in the 1850s, she said. Exposure to new illnesses such as influenza, measles and syphilis that came with colonization decimated its numbers.
The community continues to struggle with cases of tuberculosis, she added.
“They've already lost so much as a community,” she said.
The tribe along with its ancient language and culture are at risk, and losing them means losing a window into human history, Abbi said.
“They represent one of the most ancient civilizations,” she said.
The ancestors of the Great Andamanese traveled from Africa to settle off the Indian coast some 70,000 years ago, Abbi said. Other tribes in the archipelago have similar ancient roots, and unlike the Great Andamanese, they are not integrated.

A Sentinel tribal man aims with his bow and arrow at an Indian Coast Guard helicopter as it flies over their island for survey in India's Andaman and Nicobar archipelago.Indian Coast Guard / AP file
The nomadic Jarawa tribe of an estimated 400 people live relatively isolated in forests. But they risk being exposed to the virus by poachers, travelers and even welfare workers encroaching on their territory, according to Survival.
Despite being among the most isolated tribes in the world, the uncontacted Sentinelese are also at risk of exposure by poachers fishing off their remote island of North Sentinel. Survival International is calling for strict protections to ensure outsiders remain away from their territory — which linguist Abbi agreed with.

“The best thing is to leave them alone,” she said.
There’s no evidence yet to suggest any ethnic group is at greater risk of complications from the coronavirus because of a lack of immunity since the virus is new to all humans, said Dr. Jehan El-Bayoumi, founding director of the Rodham Institute at the George Washington University.
But other social and economic factors — such as nutrition, access to health care and poverty — do increase the risk of complications in indigenous and minority communities, El-Bayoumi said.
“We know that 80 percent of the outcomes related to any illness actually has nothing to do with access to health care, it is really the social determinants of health,” she said. “Those include water that you drink, the air that you breathe, the food that you eat, your education, your economic background, (or) systemic racism.”
Download the NBC News app for the latest news on the coronavirus
In the United States, Native Americans are the group at the highest risk of death from the virus, she added.
Similar concerns can be seen around the world from increasing infections among indigenous groups in Brazil to starvation due to the pandemic’s disruption of food supplies for indigenous communities in Bangladesh, according to the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization.
What’s needed is better adherence to public health guidance as well as more representation from indigenous communities at all levels of government, so they can advocate for their needs, Ralph Bunche, general secretary of the organization, said.
“All too often, indigenous communities are suffering from greater impacts from things like coronavirus,” Bunche said. “It's just showing to a greater extent these imbalances that have had already existed.”

 

[kryonlight]

So the scientists shoot arrows to anesthetize these primates and then carried out swabbing on them?

 

[laksaboy]

It's those stupid scientists and anthropologists, visiting them and bringing the virus to them.

 

[eatshitndie]

must be one wuhan whore who was looking to make a penny.

 

[Leongsam]

This is why one must never live an isolated life.

Go forth and mingle and interact with others from faraway lands. Catch as many viruses as possible in order to build up immunity.

You may die of some infection but there will be those amongst your clan who will survive to take the gene pool to the next level ie stronger and more resistant to whatever pathogen that may be out there.

 

[sweetiepie]

In India, there are about 70 such tribes who have been living in isolation for thousands of years. Besides A&N, they are spread in states like Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Bihar, Kerala etc.

My uncle didn't know tribes also can play in India super league and my uncle won quite some money from sg pool on it.

 

[syed putra]

The nicobars are not that far off from many brown coloured people who lives on islands.
Off Myanmar coast, you have sea gypsies

Sea Gypsies of Myanmar​

The blue waters off the Tanintharyi coast of Southern Myanmar are home to a race of people called Salons in the Myanmar language. Also known as Moken, they are a nomadic people. They roam the seas in their fragile canoes looking for sea cucumbers, pearls and otherwise searching the sea bed for their livelihood. Even the deadly sea urchins with their prickly and poisonous spikes are handled with ease by them. The Salons families hop from island to island, making their canoes their home, never touching land except when the seas get rough during monsoon time. All their worldly possessions are piled in their small boats, not excluding the household dogs even, as they wander from one deserted island to another as their forefathers had done thousands of times in as much years. And this had earned them an epitaph as Sea Gypsies.
There are many theories as to their origin. One source says they are of Austronesian ethnic group. Another says they migrated from southern China some 4,000 years ago. It was speculated that in the late 17th century, while moving through what now is Malaysia, this group split off from others and made the sea their habitat .And more recently, Jacques lvanoff, a Frenchman who had studied these nomads of the sea, had categorized them as the spearhead of a littoral civilization that began colonizing the Taninthayi region from the south , escaping from the ensnaring clutches of the dominant religion of that region and mercantilism and had made poverty a symbol of their identity within the Malay social chrysalis.
But one thing for sure is that they had been in the area for decades if not centuries. Many islands in the Myeik (Mergui) Archipelago have Moken indigenous names: Kyun Mei Gyi is Lui (its previous English name was Clara) in Moken spoken language. Lebi in Moken has envolved into Lumpi, but during the colonial period it was called Sullivan Island. Bo Cho Island as we now call the island facing Lumpi Marine National Park was called Pu Nala or Luark in Moken language but in the British Admiralty Charts, the name is Eyles. So this shows that the Salons were in this region even before the British arrived. It was only in 1783 that a British mariner Capt. Forrest sailed these waters and give English names to most of these islands in the Myeik (Mergui) Archipelago. However, the Myanmar government had renamed almost all these isolated island with Myanmar name in 1990.
Researches show that the earliest mention of these people appeared in the Calcutta Government Gazette dated March 2, 1826. Also in the East India Gazetteer, vol (ii) page 226 published in London in 1928, it was mentioned that “A race of men , termed by the Burmese (Myanmar) Chalome and Pase are to be found scattered throughout the Myeik (Mergui) Archipelago. But their dread of Malayan and other pirates has compelled these poor creatures to adopt an unsettled mode of life”. By inference, Chalome might be what we now call Salon and the Pase could be Pashus, a mixed Malay race.
A British author W.G White had also written about them in 1922. He wrote that “a Burmese (Myanmar) King at Ava (Innwa) had sent for some of these Sea-Gypsies, had taught them how to read and write and sent them back”.
The Islands and the seas the Salons call as their home is beautiful. More than 800 islands dot this area. Many of the islands are bigger than some island-nations in some parts of the world but some are just jutting rocks barely above the lashing waves. Most are uninhabited but there are also islands where quite a large community of squid fishers and others had established themselves. The common thread of these villages is the availability of fresh water for although the islands are all surrounded by water the sea water is unfit to drink. One of the most important of these is the Ma Gyun Galet Salon (Moken) village situated on Bo Cho Island, opposite the Lumpi Marine National Park.


Plus tribes on islands off Sumatra e.g nias island which have many similarities to those from sabah and taiwan in costume.

​

 

[cocobobo]

Destructive testing.The testers affected the results.

 

[syed putra]

Its lucky india got nicobar because if it was given to chinese, would be polarised, forced to learn chinese, have chinese names, land seized to build high rise apartment in order to house even more chinese from china, given drugs and sex pills to inculcate incest, before their eventual extermination.

 

[mojito]

Silly Dr nay. Air born virus of course is fly there lah!

 

[bobby]

As they are part of India..the tribesman and family can actually apply under CECA to come to Singapore to work.