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Introduction
The smallpox epidemic of 1517-1521 was not the only epidemic to strike Mexico and Central America during the sixteenth century. Below is a record of disease experiences among the Indians, composed by reading Spanish accounts of the conquest and colonization and noting each mention of disease. The chart most certainly does not represent every epidemic that swept through the land in the sixteenth century, but it does give an idea of how often during those years populations in Meso-America experienced attacks of unusual diseases, unknown prior to the arrival of the Spaniards.
The "Mortality" column in the table contains blank spaces since not every observer estimated the mortality of the epidemics. The chart reveals that more than one disease often struck a population at the same time, an event that epidemiologists, or specialists in the study of disease transfer, refer to as "cluster epidemics."
Questions to Consider
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What can a compilation such as the one below tell us about the New World experience with European diseases in the first century after the arrival of the Spaniards?
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How might a "cluster epidemic" affect a population differently from the experience of a single disease epidemic?
Data
Epidemics in Mexico and Central America, 1520-1595:
Location |
Date |
Disease |
Mortality |
Mexico, Guatemala |
1520-1521 |
Smallpox (1) |
"more than one-fourth died," "one-third to one-half or more" (Mexico) |
Panama |
1527 |
Smallpox |
|
Nicaragua |
1529 |
Smallpox (?) |
|
Mexico |
1531-1532 |
Measles and/or Smallpox |
60-90% |
Honduras, Nicaragua |
1531 |
Bubonic or Pneumonic Plague? |
|
Guatemala |
1532 |
Measles |
|
Honduras, Nicaragua |
1533 |
Measles |
|
Guatemala |
1545 |
Gucumatz-Typhus (2) or Pneumonic Plague |
"three-quarters died" |
Mexico |
1545 |
Cocoliztli |
80% |
Guatemala |
1558-1562 |
Measles and Influenza (3) |
|
Mexico |
1576-1581 |
Cocoliztli |
45% |
Guatemala |
1576-1577 |
Smallpox, Measles, and Typhus |
"many children died" |
Nicaragua |
1578 |
? |
|
Mexico |
1587-1588 |
Cocolitzli |
|
Mexico |
1595 |
Measles |
|
(1) In a smallpox epidemic, approximately 25 to 30 percent of an unvaccinated population will die from the disease. (back)
(2) Typhus, measles, and smallpox were all accompanied by a rash; a rash was not a symptom of cocoliztli. (back)
(3) Respiratory infections (pneumonia, not influenza) were common accompaniments of measles, smallpox, and typhus. (back)
Source:
Suzanne Austin Alchon, A Pest in the Land; New World Epidemics in a Global Perspective (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2003), 69, 73. Alchon combined information from several sixteenth-century Spanish sources.
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