By Will Grant, BBC News

Indigenous people are often hit harder by illnesses from the outside world

媒体英语(论坛)会带大家一起学习BBC撰稿人在报道世界大事时常用到的单词和短语。

Background: 据报道南美洲亚马逊的土著部落被传染上了猪流感病毒。位于巴西及委内瑞拉交界处的 Yanomami (亚诺玛米部落)里，有七名土著人已经不幸死于猪流感，而且有可能数百名其他土著人也被传染了。委内瑞拉政府还没有正式确认死亡人数和原因，但已经派遣专 家组到该地区进行调查。

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.