By Tom Phillips in Xingu National Park.
August 11, 2009

It's hard to escape talk of swine flu in Brazil at the moment - even in the Xingu National Park, which I visited last week. This is Francisco Txicao, an Ikpeng indian from the state of Mato Grosso, who has taken to wearing a face-mask because of concerns that the illness might be reaching Pavuru, the small Amazon village where he lives. Francisco told me he was using the mask because of reports of swine flu in Canarana, an agricultural frontier town just outside his indigenous reserve where many of the Xingu's indians go to sell their produce. Better safe than sorry.