Native American disease and epidemics

Uncommon card · No. 138885

The history of disease and epidemics that affected the Indigenous peoples of the Americas is defined by two distinct factors: localized endemic health conditions and foreign pathogens introduced through European colonization. Prior to 1492, endemic conditions in the Americas included localized parasites, treponema infections, Chagas disease, and regional gastrointestinal disease, none of which produced continent-wide epidemics. In contrast, European contact and the subsequent colonization of the Americas introduced acute, highly contagious pathogens such as smallpox, measles, typhus, and influenza, against which Indigenous populations possessed no prior immunological exposure. While localized conditions were typically chronic, aggravating factors such as malnutrition, sudden changes in diet, physical exhaustion, stress, and physical displacement caused them to become far more lethal. Simultaneously, these same colonially-induced disruptions, compounded by the systemic and intentional destruction...

Read on Wikipedia · Image en:Bernardino de Sahagún (1499-1590), compiler. Original illustration by unknown 16th-century artist; this version of the drawing by unknown 16th-century copyist., Public domain