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Not cough, but heavy nose and mouth bleeding – these are the symptoms of a devastating epidemic that claimed the lives of almost 80 percent of the South American population some 500 years ago. The dangerous contagion comes from Europe. The Aztecs call it kokolitzli, a disease, he writes. Deutsche Welle.
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The epidemic was brought to Mexico by the Spanish conquistadors half a millennium before Covid-19. It became one of the deadliest in human history: 15 million indigenous people in Mexico and Guatemala were victims of it from 1545 to 1550 and from 1576 to 1578. The population will take several centuries to recover.
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“The Spanish conquistadors carry various diseases on the American continent, first smallpox and then other European diseases such as measles and influenza,” explains ethnologist Antye Gunzenheimer, from the University of Bonn.
Today, typhoid-like disease can be cured with antibiotics, but at the time the battle with it was hopeless, lasting only three to four days. Hygiene also became a problem after the arrival of the Spanish. “During the siege of Mexico, Hernán Cortés destroys the water supply, making even the most basic disinfection measures impossible,” says Gunzenheimer.
Escape to religion
Many indigenous peoples seek salvation in religion. “Missionary orders promise locals that, as Christians, they will not be affected by the disease.” As a result, people move to new settlements, where they live more intimately and find easier victims of the disease.
Centuries later, Protestant pastors in Brazil called the new coronavirus a “Satan strategy” and preached that faith was the best cure for Covid-19.
Is there room for comparison with the new virus?
Alexander Herbig is an archeogeneticist: he studies the evolution of human diseases. According to him, there is not much in common between coccoliths and the coronavirus: “In coccoliths, several different pathogens play a role, not only the entire world is affected, but only a few Latin American regions, and the death rate is very high”.
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Two years ago, an international research team, which also included Herbig, made a sensational discovery and understood what caused the Mexican pandemic. “In several individuals (from the remains of 29 victims of the coccoliths studied), we were able to identify the genome of a typhoid-related salmonella bacterium called paratyphoid C,” said Herbig.
New diseases will continue to emerge
Despite the differences between Covid-19 and the paratyphoid, the scientist also finds parallels: “In both diseases, there is a phenomenon that affects people without symptoms that can infect others.”
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Even today, typhoid fever and less paratyphoid diseases remain a serious threat, with more than 30 million people affected annually, according to the World Health Organization. Symptoms include fever, gastrointestinal problems, and dehydration. According to the WHO, the death toll is approximately 200,000 a year.
Alexander Herbig believes that humanity will have to continue to adapt to new pathogens in the future. He cites the growing number of antibiotic-resistant bacteria as an example: “Although they are not related to viral diseases as they are today, their development is also very worrying.”
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