WIKIMEDIA, MATTOSAURUS
Oral, skin, and fecal bacteria from the Yanomami, an Amazonian tribe with no previously recorded contact with Western peoples, display incredible diversity, including antibiotic-resistance genes that evade manmade medicines the tribe has most likely never been exposed to, according to a study published today (April 17) in Science Advances.
In 2009, Venezuelan scientists visited the tribe for the first time and administered health treatments. At the time, 34 villagers between the ages of four and 50 consented to providing skin, oral, and/or fecal samples. Researchers from New York University, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, also in New York City, and the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, among other institutions then analyzed the genes of the bacteria in the samples ...
