"An Unusual and Fast Disappearing Opportunity": Infectious Disease, Indigenous Populations, and New Biomedical Knowledge in Amazonia, 1960-1970

Anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies among indigenous populations of the Brazilian Amazon: a cross-sectional study

OBJECTIVES

The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 and its pandemic spread generated serious concern about the impact of the infection on vulnerable indigenous populations of the Brazilian Amazon. Thus, this study aimed to perform a seroepidemiological survey of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in those populations.

SETTING

Six indigenous ethnic groups living in the State of Pará (Northern Brazil) were investigated. The villages of Xikrin do Bacajá, Assurini, Araweté, Parakanã, Munduruku and Kararaô were visited from October 2020 to January 2021.

DESIGN AND PARTICIPANTS

We performed a cross-sectional study to investigate the prevalence of anti-spike (S1) IgG antibodies. Plasma was tested for the presence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgM and IgG antibodies using two assays (a lateral flow rapid test and an ELISA). A total of 1185 individuals of both sexes were enrolled in the study.

RESULTS

The prevalences of IgM and IgG antibodies were 6.9% and 68.1%, respectively, ranging from 0% to 79.6%, with significant differences (p<0.001) between age groups in three communities (Araweté, Xikrin and Munduruku) and a virulence rate of 0.86%. The overall IgG prevalence obtained by rapid tests and ELISAs were similar, and the agreement of the results between the two tests was 80%, which was classified as good (kappa=0.4987; p<0.001; sensitivity of 82.1% and specificity of 71.6%). Herd immunity was probably attained, similar to that found in other communities of the Amazon.

CONCLUSIONS

SARS-CoV-2 spread rapidly among the indigenous populations investigated, but it had a low mortality rate. It is necessary to expand serological investigations to other communities in the Amazon region of Brazil.

"A most bountiful source of inspiration:" Dobzhansky's evolution of tropical populations, and the science and politics of genetic variation

Theodosius Dobzhansky has been studied for how he integrated field naturalism and laboratory experimentation in ways that helped produce the Modern Synthesis, as well as how he leveraged biological expertise to support liberal and cosmopolitan values amidst Second World War and the Cold War. Moreover, Dobzhansky has been central in analyses of the institutionalization of genetics in Brazil, where he spent several years. This article situates Dobzhansky's Brazilian research within the science of variation and the politics of diversity. I conclude by raising questions about how the ways in which science figured in politics depended on ideas about the role of scientists in society whichwere advanced in parallel, suggesting research on the "co-production" of natural and social orders.

Ethics in Human Biology: A Historical Perspective on Present Challenges

The practice of human biology requires the negotiation of a range of ethical issues, including the politics of race and indigeneity, the appropriate use of research materials, and the relationship between researchers and those people from whose bodies they seek to gain knowledge. Grounding my discussion in a history of the field, I discuss key ethical turning points that have shaped the present. These include the field's complex historical relationship to race and colonialism and the implications this relationship has for research, including the needs and desires of Indigenous peoples. This review demonstrates that human biology has been a crucible for many of the most complex ethical issues facing anthropology and allied practices of biomedicine and life science. Its future success as a field is inextricable from its practitioners’ ability to adapt in ways that foster the trust and engagement of those humans whose bodies constitute the basis for their knowledge making.