Justover a workweek ago , US - born missionary John Allen Chau was pour down with stem and arrows by an apart community of hunter - accumulator hoi polloi subsist on North Sentinel Island in the Bay of Bengal . While naively well - intentioned , his tragically misguided attempts to “ make contact ” withthe Sentineleseand preach Christianity actuate a middling amount of hubbub and raised a turn of issues touch remote tribal grouping .
Mary Ho , international executive leader of All Nations , the Christian missionary agency that supported Chau , has recently mouth out about his death and defended his fateful conclusion to visit the island .
In an interview withChristianity Today , she argues that Chau was not a risk of infection to the federation of tribes . She even vindicate his head trip by saying : “ We are talking about a different clip here , we ’re talking about a time right now when there is modern medicine , when there are antibiotic . ”
“ This displays an extraordinary grade of ignorance , which spotlight why it ’s so unsafe for such hoi polloi to be anywhere near uncontacted tribes , ” Stephen Corry , Director ofSurvival International , sound out ina statement .
“ The idea that far-flung deaths amongst newly contacted tribes is a matter of past story is sluttish to confute , ” he added . “ There are many cases in the last few decades where this has been read , specially in Brazil and Peru . For exemplar , the Nahua , Peru , suffered over 50 % of deaths in the eighties following contact . ”
Chau , it ’s claim by Ho , was medically trained . However , he was not a medical physician . He had a degree in health and sports medication , as well as some preparation in emergency medicine .
Ho said that Chau put a surprising amount of cookery into his fateful journeying to North Sentinel Island . Before he set off , he reportedly quarantined himself for “ many days ” in an attempt to ensure he was not riddle in pathogens they would not be immune against . However , it ’s urge that an absolute lower limit of a week ’s quarantine is required before a link expedition . Furthermore , his campaign to quarantine himself would have been null - and - vacuum after he got to the gravy holder with the fisherman who take him near to the island .
She depart on to say that Chau “ seek to get 13 character of immunization ” to the kinship group . In reply to this , Corry said : “ We have no melodic theme what this means . In any case , there is no immunization available against the common cold , which has been one of the master problems with uncontacted people .
“ The initial viral contagion ( against which antibiotics are useless ) commonly lead to secondary infection which prove venomous . ”
The lesson , it seems , is quite clean : unless actively welcomed , bequeath removed tribal group alone , for your benefit and , perhaps most importantly , theirs .
