Something that could contribute to the high incidence of HPV and cervical cancer among indigenous hunter gather women would obviously be the lack of HPV vaccinations. Possibly, another reason for the increase could be the lack of frequent hygienic actions among hunter-gatherers in comparison to Western society. The lack of reproductive protection would also be a leading cause for HPV and cervical cancer among indigenous hunter-gatherer women. While women are the only people that can have cervical cancer, it is well known among the medical community that men also can contract HPV through sexual intercourse and may even develop genital cancers as a result. If men can contract the virus, then researchers should explore what the total percentage of HPV is among these isolated hunter-gatherer communities to provide a broader picture of the rising outbreak. Among the peer reviewed papers that will be discussed and compared, it will be interesting to see the preventive measures that could be attempted among the hunter-gatherer populations.
Regardless of the simple way in which these indigenous people choose to live they are still susceptible to the diseases that affect all humans. While HPV is a sexually transmitted disease (STD) and typically does little harm beyond the warts that typify it, the disease can cause the body to become susceptible to other infections and conditions that can be much deadlier. For example, cervical cancer is one of the biggest responses to HPV female bodies tend to succumb to as the rapidly generated cells can quickly become cancerous. While this is a disease that is normally written off as a modern world disease, there are members of hunter-gather populations that do contract and end up with both HPV and cervical ca
ncer as shown by the work of Fonseca et. al (205) . These researchers worked with isolated indigenous women of the Amazon rainforest in 205, then released a paper of their findings and possible solutions. The study by she and her colleagues is what ignited the research that was done for this very paper. Researchers had been surveying indigenous Amazonian tribes in order to track the rate of HPV spreading among native women. They were attempting to understand how the indigenous lifestyle and interaction with Western society impacted the chances of contracting the virus. The main tribe they worked with is the Yanomami, who are a hunter-gatherer tribe that is isolated deep within the Amazon rainforest. The researchers compared the Yanomami womens rates of contracting HPV to those of other indigenous tribes that live and interact more closely with Western societies, such as women of the Macuxi and Wapishana tribes. Fonseca et al. (205) came to the conclusion that there were both limitations and advantages of being an isolated hunter-gatherer group. When isolated there is less chance of contraction and spread of a disease that is mainly conceptualized as a modern disease, however, for those that are affected there is also a constraint on the aid for both this group of indigenous women and others effected by HPV. Taking samples from 664 women from 3 different indigenous tribes they were able to conclude that women over the age of 35 where far more likely to contract HPV and in turn contact cervical cancer (Fonseca et. al 205). Therefore, the goal for the rest of the paper is to discuss and analyze research from other scientists to determine what could possibly explain the high rate of HPV among indigenous women and what can be done to aid them.