[Myths concerning malarial transmission among Amazonian Indians and their relation with 2 types of transmission encountered in the Amazonian forest].
Among the Indians Desana's (Tukano amerindians) in the Upper Rio Negro, the interseasonal variation of the malarial fevers were associated with two myths (localised in two distinguishable places). One myth associates the malarial with the rivers which contain "malaria pots". Conception based on an observation of localised water collection in the banks and the rocky rapids ("banks and rocky's fever"). The transmission and the anophelian density present variation between the seasons in relation to the river's level. Another myth associates malarial fevers in the forest, with the song of a frog ("fever's frog") and the flowering and fructification of a tree (Poaqueira sericea Thul.). There is in South America a particular type of forest malaria, known as "Bromelia malaria" and denounced in human and/or simian transmission. This forest malaria is transmitted by the a sub-genus anopheles (Kerteszia) which larval breeding are areal in the canopy. The breeding places are found in the forest in the epiphyte bromeliads. To understand this type of transmission, we must take reference to the previous endomological data at the Upper Oyapock Wayâpi (Tupi amerindians). This Bromelia malaria could fluctuated according larval density variation, related to washing of epiphytes (end of the rainy season) or to their flowering (end of the dry season). The "fever's frog" myth collected at the Desana's in the Upper Rio Negro can be related to the existence of Bromelia malaria in this amazonian habitat. These myths showed the perfect adaptation of the amerindians to their environment and their complete knowledge of the neotropical forest.
Molez
J F
JF
Laboratoire de paludologie, IRD-ORSTOM, BP 1386, Dakar, Sénégal.
D000818:Animals; D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D007199:Indians, South American; D007303:Insect Vectors; D008288:Malaria / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000635:transmission*; D009229:Mythology