How many aztecs were killed by disease

We can look for the unknown, which is wonderful. The salmonella strain was found in 10 of the 24 "post-contact" skeletons and none of the "pre-contact" bodies, which Ms Vagene described as a "great finding".

It breaks down over time," she said. The disease had spread everywhere in their body. This suggests that these individuals were not simply carriers of the disease - they were victims of it. More research is needed to determine whether salmonella enterica was the sole cause of the epidemic or whether other viruses and pathogens were also present in these bodies.

Ms Vagene also pointed out that her team only studied one group of skeletons from one burial site. Whether it was Europeans who introduced salmonella to the indigenous population is also uncertain.

The Past. From textiles and transportation to chemicals and microchips, a group of researchers proposes a new way to measure the impact of innovation. Although many dinosaurs never left the ground, they still possessed the basic structural framework for flight. Though these ancient settlers of China were culturally cosmopolitan, their DNA turns out to have been completely distinct from the communities with which they interacted. Up Next. Even at the time, physicians said the symptoms did not match those of better-known diseases such as measles and malaria.

Scientists now say they have probably unmasked the culprit. Analysing DNA extracted from 29 skeletons buried in a cocoliztli cemetery, they found traces of the salmonella enterica bacterium, of the Paratyphi C variety. It is known to cause enteric fever, of which typhoid is an example. The Mexican subtype rarely causes human infection today. Sores erupted on our faces, our breasts, our bellies; we were covered with agonizing sores from head to foot.

In many places it happened that everyone in a house died, and as it was impossible to bury the great number of dead, they pulled down the houses over them, so that their homes became their tombs. Smallpox took its toll on the Aztecs in several ways. First, it killed many of its victims outright, particularly infants and young children.

Many other adults were incapacitated by the disease — because they were either sick themselves, caring for sick relatives and neighbors, or simply lost the will to resist the Spaniards as they saw disease ravage those around them. Finally, people could no longer tend to their crops, leading to widespread famine, further weakening the immune systems of survivors of the epidemic.

Of course, the Aztecs were not the only indigenous people to suffer from the introduction of European diseases. And other European diseases, such as measles and mumps, also took substantial tolls — altogether reducing some indigenous populations in the new world by 90 percent or more. Recent investigations have suggested that other infectious agents, such as Salmonella — known for causing contemporary outbreaks among pet owners — may have caused additional epidemics.

The ability of smallpox to incapacitate and decimate populations made it an attractive agent for biological warfare. In the 18th century, the British tried to infect Native American populations.

I hope it will have the desired effect. Mass vaccination against smallpox got going in the second half of the s. Photo courtesy of Everett Historical via Shutterstock.