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History of Smallpox in American Indian

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In the article "Smallpox and American Indians Revisited," author James C. Riley discussed the smallpox issue during the early modern era. Smallpox became a crucial health issue in American Indians and Europeans which leads to death and depopulation in the regions. The author used both new and old hypotheses to analyze the reasons behind deaths due to smallpox. He also used previous researches and sources to collect the information related to smallpox. The issue of smallpox is crucial because due to the vast death and depopulation, smallpox leads to low population growth in the country, which increased the confusion and fear that smallpox might be used as bioterrorism. The author argued that lethal smallpox came with the African slaves and Europeans in the new world. During the 1490s smallpox reached the West Indies and Hispaniola in 1518. The author further argued that smallpox is correlated with variola phylogenic disease in Asia, and it is possible that Asian immigrants transferred this disease to Europe and Africa. Report depicting fatality rates in variola major indicates that India had 26.5% total death due to this disease.

Another argument that the author gave was unawareness about the disease. In 1960 medical tests indicated that the disease is highly contagious, and before that major reason for disease expansion and deaths might be the visiting of sick people with friends, family, physicians, and other people. Research indicates that during 1968-70, 70% of people who lived close to each other or within the same compound fell sick in rural west Pakistan while those who did not have face to face contact remained healthy. Another reason that the author added in his argument was the amount of dose. The author believed that fewer doses, as well as high doses both, resulted in the seriousness of the disease. Children caught this disease more than young due to incompletely developed immune response and also older adults because of impaired immune system.

Furthermore, the author discussed the argument of historians by using familiar hypotheses, including social disruption, nutrition, genetic impairment, and genetic homogeneity. Both old and new researches agreed to the hypotheses that a shortage of food or malnutrition increases the chances of infection. Lack of access to the food weakens the immune system to respond towards infections, and people who have genetic issues related to disease face more difficulties to cope with smallpox. He also used some other additional hypotheses like host behavior in ordinary times, pregnant women and maternal antibodies to find a conclusion. Reports indicate that out of 14,800 about 2300 people had smallpox in the market town of Chester, England. People migrated from different nations and settled in Europe where due to uncommon features between communities smallpox transferred in speed. The main issue was that smallpox was not identified at that time and people's communication increased the risk. Evidence indicates that the infant was high on risk as most of the children under three months died due to smallpox. The parents were unaware of the transferable characteristic of the disease, which resulted in sickness among parents while taking care of their children. Pregnant women face premature birth, miscarriage, congenital smallpox in neonates, and even death. Iceland's researches and reports indicate that 40% of the total population was died due to smallpox in the new world. In Europe, fatality percentage was further higher than Iceland where American data shows 50% plausible fatality rate.

Through hypotheses, reports, researches, tables, and articles author concluded that food and dosage became the main issue while coping with the disease. People who were able to get vaccination with vaccinia virus and protein-energy food recovered while others faced death. Nutrition played the main role in smallpox as it improves the immune response and enables the patient to survive. Therefore, malnutrition resulted in a vast death rate in American Indians. In addition, various genetic characteristics resulted in an inability in American Indians to cope with smallpox. The most crucial factor was the novelty of smallpox. It means, women who had smallpox were unable to pass protective antibodies to the infants which increased the risk of smallpox in the children below the age of three, and this is why most of the children died upto six months. Lastly, the lifestyle of the American Indians depends on living close to others and having a big social circle that resulted in the transfer of infection. People were unaware of the disease and remained close to the people who were infected, which resulted in the depopulation of American Indians due to smallpox.

Bibliography

ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Cameron, Catherine M., Paul Kelton, and Alan C. Swedlund. Beyond Germs: Native Depopulation in North America. University of Arizona Press, 2015.

“Demographic and Immune-Based Selection Shifts before and after European Contact Inferred from 50 Ancient and Modern Exomes from the Northwest Coast of North America | BioRxiv.” Accessed October 2, 2019. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/051078v1.abstract.

Duggan, Ana T., Maria F. Perdomo, Dario Piombino-Mascali, Stephanie Marciniak, Debi Poinar, Matthew V. Emery, Jan P. Buchmann, et al. “17th Century Variola Virus Reveals the Recent History of Smallpox.” Current Biology 26, no. 24 (December 19, 2016): 3407–12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2016.10.061.

Ghio, Andrew J. “Particle Exposure and the Historical Loss of Native American Lives to Infections.” American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine 195, no. 12 (June 15, 2017): 1673–1673. https://doi.org/10.1164/rccm.201609-1810LE.