LONDON, (Reuters) – Swine flu has hit an isolated  tribe of Indians in the Amazon jungle, with seven dying in the  last two weeks, Survival International said yesterday.

A further 1,000 members of the Yanomami tribe in Venezuela  are believed to have caught the flu, the indigenous peoples  rights group said.

It is feared the flu could sweep through the area and kill  many more Yanomami as the Indians have little resistance to  introduced diseases.

About 32,000 Yanomami live in the Venezuela-Brazil border  region and form the largest relatively isolated tribe in the  Amazon.

Survival director Stephen Corry said the situation was  critical and the Venezuelan and Brazilian governments must act  immediately to halt the epidemic and improve health care for the  Yanomami.

“If they do not, we could once more see hundreds of Yanomami  dying of treatable diseases. This would be utterly devastating  for this isolated tribe, whose population has only just  recovered from the epidemics which decimated their population 20  years ago,” he said in a statement.

About 20 per cent of the Yanomami tribe died from flu,  malaria and other diseases in the 1980 and 1990s when goldminers  invaded their land, Survival said.

The Venezuelan government has closed the border and sent  medical teams.

The H1N1 virus — the correct medical term for swine flu —  has spread globally and killed nearly 5,000 people since  appearing early this year, according to the World Health  Organisation.