Deadly coffee - coffee growing exposes Brazil's Surui Indians to fatal fungus disease - Brief Article

FOR MOST OF US, COFFEE IS A RELAtively harmless vice. That's not the case for the Surui Indians in western Brazil, who grow coffee for a living. Medical anthropologist Carlos Coimbra of Brazil's Oswaldo Cruz Foundation has found that raising coffee exposes the Surui to serious--even life-threatening--health problems.

After hearing reports that Indians were dying of a rare fungal disease, Coimbra decided to investigate. The disease, he knew, is caused by Paracoccidiodes brasiliensis, a soil-dwelling fungus that infects the lining of the lungs when it is inhaled; left untreated, it can be fatal. Coimbra studied three Amazonian tribes and found that nearly half of the 500-strong Surui tribe were infected with the fungus, while only between 7 and 15 percent of the nearby Zoro and Gaviao tribes showed signs of infection. "All three tribes live in the same ecosystem and have the same culture," says Coimbra. "The only difference is that the Surui grow coffee."

The Surui, who had their first contact with the modern world only in 1969, were encouraged to grow coffee by the Brazilian government, which figured that a cash crop would help the tribe become economically independent. Instead, Coimbra says, the switch from subsistence crops like maize, sweet potatoes, and peanuts has exposed the Surui not only to the volatility of the international coffee market but also to P. brasiliensis. The traditional crops didn't require weeding and involved very little contact with soil dust. Coffee farming, on the other hand, requires intensive weeding year-round, which raises up plumes of soil dust that could contain P. brasiliensis. Worse, the Surui weed with machetes rather than hoes, working close to the ground and increasing their risk of infection. "At sunset, it is not uncommon to see clouds of dust over the villages," says Coimbra.

Coimbra has been conducting workshops with doctors in the area to alert them to the problem. As a result, the mortality rate has dropped from 57 percent of those who become ill to almost zero. With regular medical treatment, says Coimbra, and better agricultural tools, the Surui may be able to continue to raise coffee without risking their lives.

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