As the measles outbreak has struck fatal blows within a remote Penan settlement in central Sarawak, Sahabat Alam Malaysia (Friends of the Earth) has claimed it could possibly be due to the community being forced to change their traditional lifestyle because of outside encroachment into their natural habitat.

"The reason for this outbreak may be attributed to the fact that the (natural) immunity of the Penan has been compromised by drastic changes to their original lifestyle," SAM president SM Mohamed Idris said in a statement released by SAM office in Marudi in northern Sarawak.

The latest four deaths reported yesterday have brought the total number of deaths to 18 from what Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister Dr George Chan told the media has been positively confirmed as measles.

The health authorities have carried out large-scale vaccination and taken what Chan described as control and preventive measures to contain the outbreak which started at the end of last year.

The cases did not come to light until recently, attributed by official quarters to ignorance and the remoteness of the settlement.

According to Idris, the environmental impact assessment (EIA) study on the multi-billion-ringgit Bakun hydro-dam project, now under construction in Sg Murun, had "already forwarned the potential for the introduction and spread of diseases, and thus more could have been done to protect the Penan people."

SAM called on the ministries concerned to ensure that impact assessments for proposed projects are carried out thoroughly.

"If there are potential adverse impacts on indigenous people, stringent measures should be taken to ensure these people are protected," he added.

Cease vaccination

If necessary, the authorities should even consider the option of scrapping a project if its implementation is likely to have an adverse impact on the people's health, Idris said.

SAM also called for the cessation of mass vaccination programmes on the Penans in Belaga as well as in the Baram districts until a thorough study could be conducted.

"This is because these vaccinations can cause damage to the people whose immune systems may already be weakened by the drastic changes to their lifestyle, and may result in severe adverse reactions that would not be normally seen in individuals whose immune systems are fully functioning."

Idris also called for experts well versed with problems faced by the indigenous people to meet and discuss ways of finding "a solution that is effective for people who are in unique circumstances."

"A thorough study on the lifestyle of the Penan community needs to be conducted, with the view of correcting adverse effects that have undermined the health of the Penan community," he said.

Worst affected

Since the 1980s, SAM has been highlighting the plight of the Penan community and the adverse effects that have come about due to logging and other forms of new development in their native habitat.

These people, who represented the last nomadic hunter-gatherers of Borneo, were the worst affected by the aggressive development that had taken place in their natural habitat, Idris said.

He added that although some had already engaged in agriculture and settled with varying degrees of permanency, the Penans on the whole, regardless of their dwelling lifestyles, still depended on the forest resources.

Those who were still nomadic, and fully lived by hunting and gathering, suffered untold hardships when game, fish, fruit trees and wild sago palms, their staple food, started to disappear.

Alienation from natural resources along with environmental degradation had been identified as a cause of poor health in indigenous communities.

"The Penans have had to contend with drastic changes to their natural way of life - their habitat, livelihood, food and traditional methods of healing," Idris said.