A new world of infectious disease

Abstract

When Christopher Columbus crossed the Atlantic Ocean in 1492, he brought together two worlds of infection which had developed in virtual isolation from each other for thousands of years. The picture of infectious disease in the New World differed from that in the Old World in many ways, but probably most dramatically in the absence or near absence of crowd infections capable of causing severe epidemics. The devastating effects of these crowd diseases in the post‐Columbian period are well known, with conditions such as smallpox, diphtheria, measles, malaria, bubonic plague, yellow fever, and possibly typhus killing thousands of Native Americans, thus allowing inhabitants of the eastern hemisphere to become firmly established in the western hemisphere. Less is known about the diseases present in the Americas prior to 1492, but they probably included treponemal infections (pinta and syphilis), tuberculosis, forms of leishmaniasis and trypanosomiasis, fungal diseases such as coccidioidomycosis and paracoccidioidomycosis, various coccal infections, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, Lyme disease, legionellosis, hydatid disease, and a variety of intestinal parasite infections. It must be noted, however, that some of these syndromes were likely already present in both hemispheres in 1492. Recent research suggests that adult rheumatoid arthritis may also have its origin in the Americas. © 1992 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

Differential cytokine genotype frequencies among Canadian Aboriginal and Caucasian populations

“…Given the aforementioned high prevalence of tuberculosis in Europe [39][40][41][42][43][44] The Aboriginals maintained an ancient mobile hunting and gathering lifestyle, which had existed in the Old World and that was conducive to the maintenance of diffuse settlements with low population densities. 8,40,[45][46][47][48] The analysis of pathologies from human skeletal remains of ancient Aboriginal individuals indicate that parasitic, fungal infections and malnutrition were present among the early populations. [49][50][51][52] The consumption of raw or undercooked meat, living conditions that were confined during the winter months, and the pattern of collecting wild plants brought these people into close contact with fungi and parasites, and left them vulnerable to seasonal nutritional deficiency.…”

A pre-Columbian case of congenital syphilis from Anatolia (Nicaea, 13th century AD)

“…Contrary to those of the New World, specimens proving the existence of treponemal diseases in the Old World (Brothwell, 1961;Stewart & Spoehr, 1967;Steinbock, 1976;Lukacs & Walimbe, 1984;Henneberg & Henneberg, 1994;Blondiaux & AlducLe Bagousse, 1994;Stirland, 1991Stirland, , 1994Vasulu, 1994;Rao et al, 1996;Gü leç, 1996) are scarce. Most of the individuals that show signs of treponemal disease are represented by an isolated skeletal element or a fragment of bone, so that distinguishing cases of syphilis is almost impossible (Merbs, 1992). All treponemal diseases (yaws, non-venereal and venereal syphilis) leave similar traces on skeletal remains, and some lesions also bear a resemblance to other specific and non-specific infections (Steinbock, 1976;Ortner & Putschar, 1985;Aufderheide & Rodriguez-Martin, 1998;Baker & Armelagos, 1988;Rothschild & Rothschild, 1994a;Schultz, 1994;Ortner, 2003).…”

A case of congenital syphilis during the colonial period in Mexico City

“…All early cases reported for either the New and Old Worlds should be re-examined using the most recent morphological and histological criteria (Ortner et al, 1992;Merbs, 1992).…”