Some Epidemics of the history of Mexico Tuberculosis, smallpox, typhus, measles or cholera were more serious.
The first contact with the Europeans was devastating for the native population of Mexico. It is estimated that before the Spanish contact, the Mexican population was 15 to 30 million. In 1620, this number fell precipitously to an estimated 1.2 million.
Measles came in the early 1530s. A major epidemic struck again in the 1570s, probably typhus. Cholera first appeared in Mexico in the 1830s, but did not affect the population as much as smallpox.
Pre-Columbian Mexicans suffered from osteoarthritis due to continuous physical exertion. On the other hand, evidence of tuberculosis, anemia and syphilis has been found dating back 3,000 years.
10 epidemics throughout the history of Mexico
1- Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis was known in Mexico from pre-Columbian times, but it was not until 1882 when Roberto Koch It was made known worldwide that a specific name was assigned to this pathology, and from 1896 onwards it was begun to be studied in detail in Mexico.
Tuberculosis presented with yellow nodules and granulations surrounded by hard, fibrous-looking tissues. Unfortunately the patients diagnosed with tuberculosis were almost always in an advanced state so that their relatives were easily contagious.
Over the years, the study of tuberculosis progressed rapidly allowing the diagnosis and treatment of various patients with tuberculosis.
2- Syphilis
From 1529 there was an increase in the number of venereal diseases present in both the Conquerors As in the Mexican female population.
In the seventeenth century there was another increase in problems due to venereal diseases due to the arrival of large numbers of immigrants who lived in overcrowded conditions and who did not have good Hygienic habits .
It was only after 1910 that the Wassermann reaction was started to diagnose syphilis. Since then in Mexico they have been more concerned with prevention campaigns throughout the country.
3- Smallpox
Smallpox was introduced into America in 1520 when the expedition from Narvaez to the port of Veracruz arrived. Indigenous Very quickly and in most provinces killed almost half of the Aztecs since from 1519 to 1520 killed between 5 to 8 million people, including killing one of the last Aztec leaders, Cuitlahuatzin.
In 1798 and 1803, the Spanish organized a mission to transport an early smallpox vaccine to the Spanish colonies in the Americas and the Philippines, both to try to control the disease and to reduce the number of smallpox deaths. This disease was not completely erased until the early 1950s.
4- Measles
Measles arrived in Mexico in the early 1530s thanks to the Spaniards. The Indians called him Záhuatl tepiton Which means"leprosy,"to distinguish it from smallpox.
In various images of the Aztecs is represented as black spots on the body of men. The Franciscans helped the Indians to combat measles since 1532.
5- Tifus
During the sixteenth century, typhoid fever was gradually distinguished from diseases with similar clinical manifestations, as physicians learned to recognize typhus by its sudden appearance and characteristic eruption. Epidemic typhus was not distinguished precisely from typhoid fever until 1836.
A large epidemic of typhus struck the Mexican population in the 1570s, however, several epidemics of Matlachahuatl (Indigenous name to designate the typhus) attacked the population periodically. Several indigenous images represent the patients of typhus with the skin covered with brown spots.
The infestation of lice in the body and typhus raised public health problems in Mexico until recently. Cases of typhus transmitted by lice occurred mainly in cold months and in rural communities.
From the late nineteenth century to 1963, the annual epidemic typhus mortality rate in rural Mexico declined steadily from 52.4 to 0.1 cases among 100,000 people, and in 1979 no cases had been reported for 10 years.
6- Cholera
Cholera first appeared in Mexico in the 1830s, but it did not affect the population as much as did smallpox. Between 1991 and 2002 there was a small epidemic with a number of cases of 45,977 people and a mortality rate of 1.2%.
7- Hemorrhagic fever
Known as Cocoliztli ( Nahuatl For"plague") killed about 5-15 million people (80% of the native population of Mexico) between 1545 and 1548.
Another epidemic of Cocoliztli It killed an additional 2 to 2.5 million people (about 50% of the remaining native population) between 1576 and 1578.
8- Spanish flu
The 1918 influenza epidemic was a deadly form of the influenza A strain of the H1N1 subtype. It is believed to have been a mutated pig virus from China which killed about 20-100 million people worldwide.
An estimated one-third of the world's population was infected. This influenza epidemic is known as"Spanish flu", as Spain was one of the countries particularly affected by this virus and because it was reported openly, while most countries had restrictions in times of war.
9- Salmonella
Some strains of salmonella can cause serious illnesses, such as typhoid fever, which can even be deadly. A particular strain, known as Paratyphi C , Causes enteric fever (fever in the intestines).
When untreated it can kill 10 to 15 percent of those infected. The strain Paratyphi C Is now extremely rare and mainly affects poor people in developing countries Where sanitary conditions can be very bad.
10- Bubonic Plague
In 1902 the Black Death To the port of Mazatlán, this plague was characterized by the swelling of the ganglia, fever and headache.
As sanitary measures were closed drains, isolation centers were established and the entrances and exits to the city were supervised. It was only after almost 3 years that the bubonic plague ceased little by little.
References
- Acuna-Soto R, Calderón L, Maguire J. Large epidemics of hemorrhagic fevers in Mexico 1545-1815 (2000). American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.
- Agostoni C. Public health in Mexico, 1870-1943 (2016).
- Malvido E. Chronology of epidemics and agricultural crises of colonial times (1973). Mexican History.
- Mandujano A, Camarillo L, Mandujano M. History of epidemics in ancient Mexico: some biological and social aspects (2003). Recovered from: uam.mx.
- Pruitt S. Did Salmonella kill off the Aztecs? (2017). Retrieved from: history.com.
- Sepúlveda J, Valdespino JL, García L. Cholera in Mexico: the paradoxical benefits of the last pandemic (2005). International Journal of Infectious Diseases.
- Stutz B. Megadeath in Mexico (2006). Discover. Recovered from: discovermagazine.com.