The Federation of Miners says an estimated 3,000 mining sites in Amazonia have drawn untold thousands of prospectors, shopkeepers, pilots and prostitutes to remote areas.
"Only shock treatment can contain the spread of malaria in Amazonia," Dr. Agostinho Cruz Marquez, head of the Health Ministry's malaria division, said in an interview.
Even so, it is not hard to imagine that the economic value of Amazonia's genetic pool would be a large resource.