Typhoid Suspected for Mass Death in Colonial Mexico in 16th Century!

Between the years 1545-1550 a mysterious epidemic hit Mexico and it has been called the “Cocoliztli Epidemics.” But up until now researchers have been uncertain as to just what the cause of the epidemic was. Dozens of epidemics hit Mexico with the arrival of the Spanish because the native people how no immunity to pathogens the Spanish brought with them. This was also the case thought the Americas and for the same reason. However, the unidentified cocoliztli epidemics hit Mexico especially hard as it affected large portions of Mexico and Guatemala including Oaxaca, Mexico.

This epidemic caused millions of death in Mexico killing about 80% of the population. It was one of the worst epidemics in human history to say the least. It has been estimated that anywhere between 5 million and 15 million people died and that is astounding! But this pestilence wasn’t finished yet because 30 years later it returned and wiped out half of the remaining native population between 1576-1578. A Spanish Franciscan friar who witnessed the pestilence wrote that New Spain (as the Spaniards called Mexico at the time) “was left almost empty.” He went on to write that in the cities and towns large ditches were dug “and from morning to sunset the priests did nothing else but carry the dead bodies and throw them into the ditches.”

Researchers have pondered just what these epidemics were that killed so much of Mexico’s native population with some suspecting it may have been smallpox, measles, or some type of hemorrhagic fever brought to Mexico by the Spanish conquerors. Sadly, nothing for certain was ever identified as the real cause behind these epidemics until recently when scientists used DNA from a graveyard from that era to identify possible causes. It appears that Salmonella enterica was the cause. This pathogen causes enteric or typhoid fever.

This information comes to us from researchers from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Harvard University, and the Mexican National Institute of Anthropology & History who recently concluded a study on the human remains found in the mass graves. Another point of interest is that up until now we’ve had to rely on historical descriptions from the times pertaining to symptoms, etc which were often biased and inaccurate. Further, most infectious diseases are very hard to track on the DNA of skeletal remains but these researchers developed a new computer program and were able to analyze ancient DNA from the teeth of 29 skeletons found in the mass graves at a burial site in the Mixtec town of Teposcolula-Yucundaa in Oaxaca, Mexico.

It’s interesting to also note that after the epidemics this town was relocated to a neighboring valley, leaving the mass graves at the cemetery pretty much untouched. The new computer program is being called MALT and it allows scientists to screen broadly for all bacterial DNA in the extracted samples without specifying a target organism beforehand. The program allows researchers to filter out all environmental DNA like fragments of plants or fungi. When the researchers used the program and matched up the DNA fragments with a large database containing all known environmental and pathogenic bacterial genomes they were able to find traces of Salmonella enterica Paratyphic C in 10 of the skeletal remains.

Unfortunately, the study doesn’t identify the exact source of the deadly bacteria and they can’t be certain if the pathogen was brought into Mexico by the Spanish conquerors or if it originated locally and flourished with the social changes brought on by the Spanish when they arrived in Mexico. However, what scientists do know is that this particular strain already existed in Norway long before it broke out in Mexico.

A physician in New Spain at the time named Dr Francisco Hernandez described “cocoliztli” based on autopsies he performed on the dead during the epidemics. He noted that the fevers were “contagious burning, and continuous” and mostly deadly. “The tongue was dry and black,” Dr Hernandez continued, “Enormous thirst. Urine of the colors sea-green, vegetal-green, and black sometimes passing from the greenish color to the pale.” He also noted that the pulse of the patients was fast, small, and weak or wasn’t even detectable at all. This stage was apparently followed by delirium and seizures and then hard painful nodules would appear behind the ears accompanied by chest and abdominal pain, tremors, great anxiety, and dysentery. Dr Hernandez also noted that the patient’s blood “flowed when cutting a vein had a green color or was very pale and dry.”

Researchers say that since they only study remains from one site more work needs to be don on specimens from other mass grave sites to determine is their deaths can be traced to Salmonella enterica as well. This study marks a “first step” towards understanding the diseases that caused these epidemics in Spanish colonial Mexico and elsewhere and the MALT program can also be used to identify causes of other mass deaths in other parts of the world and from other times as well.

I think this new computer program MALT is fantastic! It’s going to help us solve some of the mystery deaths seen throughout human history that up until now have been mysteries to us.

Typhoid is a horrendous disease and these epidemics in colonial Mexico do not stand alone. In 430 BC a plague hit Athens, Greece which some suspect was typhoid fever and killed 1/3 of the population. Some historians think that the English colony of Jamestown in Virginia was hit with typhoid that killed more than 6000 settlers in the New World between 1607-1624. Further, although it has long been thought that US President William Harrison died of pneumonia recent studies suggest he actually may have died from typhoid and typhoid may have been a contributing factor in the death of President Zachary Taylor as well due to the unsanitary conditions of the time in Washington DC. Also, during the US Civil War over 81,000 Union soldiers died of typhoid or dysentery which is far more than the number who died from wounds in battle. Finally, a woman named Mary Mallon is believed to have been the first person in the US to carry typhoid and, thus, she earned the nickname Typhoid Mary!!

8 comments on “Typhoid Suspected for Mass Death in Colonial Mexico in 16th Century!”

I was just reading another article about all of the plagues and outbreaks that would cull major populations. and they were worse in populated areas too. thankfully some of us are ingenius and came up with ways to eradicate many of these plagues , and no, not big pharm either. they were indoor plumbing and waste removal, treated water, electricity, and refridgeration. contrary to belief the all you can eat buffet is a detriment to the health of society.

while modern medicine has brought much technology to benefit us, greed and the relentless pursuit for the almighty dollar has hindered and harmed more than the good has benefited. the whole narco epidemic was manufactured by big pharm and assisted by the fed. govt. bi-partisen and unanimous with obama signature back in 2010. in fact big pharm could be sued by big tobacco for advertising copyright violation. back then during that ad campagm, big tobacco claimed it was “safe” and “healthy” even, and now big pharm is at least plagerizing big tobacco. we see in the news today that the flu vaccine is becoming useless just like antibiotics. challenging or trying to manipulate genetics, biology and 150 million years of mammalian evolution by eating or injecting substances that are not found in our food supply, much less our environment is stupid and dangerous! hence the fact that medical mistakes are the 3rd leading killer in the US following cancer and heart disease. (which are natural)

the thing that gripes the hell out of me is that there are some people that have devolved into a really stupid subspecies. i mean they are so stupid they have to be told what to do, when to do it, almost every single minute of the day, yet they look exactly like you and me. they have regular jobs, drive a car , operate smart phone and computers, marry and have children….

what does set this new suspecies apart from us regular folk is that these people need to attend some sort of institute of higher learning and take a “spinning class.” that is where these people go to watch and be instructed by an instuctor on how to ride a stationary excercise bike. they not only need an instructor they need to look at themselve in a mirror so they don’t fall off, even though the godless contraption can stand by itself. evidently this new subspecies has balance issues.

but alas technology is now replacing the human analogue instructor with a virtual one. there are these stationary excercise bikes that have a tv mounted the handle bar and you watch a recorded video or a “digital” cartoon of the virtual instructor. i now have some valuable business information that i am going to share with you and we both can do to these institutes of higher learning what big farm did to big tobacco. i have there copyrighted instructions and there may be some patent right infringement too with the virtual instructions. so get a pencil and paper and write them down, memorize them, then burn them. here they are and it seems like there may be some sort of code embedded: “pedal, breathe in, pedal, breathe out, pedal…” for one hour, then there is a final instruction: “please swipe debit/credit card in slot at upper right hand corner of tv” then we can rip these dumb asses off for $100!!

the first time i heard the term “spinning class” i seriously thought they were learning to spin yarn. no joke. what, next semester they take a “looming class” and operate a loom and actually accomplish something. no, they are even stupider than i thought . if this is what evolution has in store for us, well then we need to be extinct! just sayin’

Some of the documented symptoms, in addition to death on the third day, was profuse bleeding from the eyes, ears, nodules forming under the skin, dark green urine and one of later symptoms being dysentery. Modern outbreaks of Typhoid will kill 20% of people who are untreated. The mass death caused by this pathogen may have made unsanitary conditions that made salmonella show up, but it seems there would have been outbreaks of cholera or other diseases if this pandemic where hinged upon environmental contamination of water supply, like typhoid is.

I know there are many strains of salmonella, some harmful, some not, but the speed of this infection and its association with climate change of the time, the great drought and the mouse population explosion resulting from the ending of that drought, seems to point to a type flu virus or something still unknown. If cocolitzli rises again, there wouldn’t be enough time to lower the mortality rate significantly, despite the presence of antibiotics. Antibiotics don’t attack the virus, but we must give it for things like parvovirus in dogs to prevent intestinal bacteria from causing intense damage, hemorrhaging, in all body systems. No matter what it is, viral or bacterial, antibiotics will be critically needed to lower mortality.

Great points Doug! 🙂 I had the same thoughts. Why was there no cholera outbreak or other associated diseases? And I also considered the changing environment, specifically, a major drought ending and the increase in the mouse (and I’m sure rat) population. Did this outbreak also have something to do with the environmental changes happening at the time? It’s possible.

You raise the question as to these outbreaks being a pathogen that is new, a pathogen that we STILL don’t know about today. Again, it is possible. If this happened today then, yes, the mortality rates would be very high I think. I find your suggestion that it may have been sort unknown kind of flu very interesting. That too is possible.

What astounded me was the number of deaths caused by this Cocolitzli. I didn’t realize the death rates were so high until I did some research on this subject. And then I pondered what that mortality rate would be if it hit in our modern times which, frankly, is a bit unnerving to think about. And, I agree, there would not be enough antibiotics to significantly lower the mortality rate in any significant way. And, also, the antibiotics we have may not even be effective against this or a similar pathogen and if that would be the case we would see death on a scale most of us could not even imagine I suspect.

Great to hear from you once again Randolf 🙂 I love your money-making idea! We could be millionaires within a year from now LOL. Seriously, there IS something going on with modern human society and specifically with modern humans. I’ve noticed it for a long while now. Once civilized societies such as ours appear to be breaking down and becoming more and more violent. Common sense seems to be more and more lacking. Rational thought seems to be more and more lacking. Males are becoming less masculine physically and psychologically and I’ve heard it suggested that this is due IN PART to the soy in our foods and beverages. Children are maturing faster and hitting puberty earlier. Ignorance seems to be becoming more and more common. And these are just a few things I’ve noticed. And so my question has been and STILL is….are we devolving?

But then I notice something else. It’s almost as if some humans are devolving while other humans are evolving! I notice some people are highly intelligent and have a large degree of common sense. I notice they detest the growing violence in our societies and they have some very innovative ideas about how the modern world can get along. In short, these people are just the opposite of those I mentioned above! So how do we explain this? What is happening?

I ponder what the world must have been like when some members of H. erectus were perhaps evolving into Cro-magnon or some more evolved species. They looked similar but they were not the same. Is this what is happening to us today? Are SOME H. sapiens sapiens evolving into the next stage of our evolution while others are not? Is this why we look the same YET clearly we are not as you also note? Is this really how evolution works? Oh yes, I’ve got a thousand questions and a few theories and my primary question is if this little theory is so then just what are some among us evolving into OR devolving into? You see it works both ways 🙂

I’m unsure just what is happening with modern humans today, honestly, but one thing I am sure of is that something IS happening right before our eyes! Common belief is that evolution takes billions and zillions and millions of years but some researchers do NOT share that common belief. Instead they hold the view that evolution can happen rather quickly in spurts and jumps and leaps! Perhaps they are on to something? Perhaps this is what we are seeing today.

We have a lot of theories and we have some evidence BUT we don’t have all of the answers….at least not yet. Perhaps we never will. And then I also consider this….what happens when the new human species reaches it’s apex? Do they plunder those less evolved? Do the less evolved go extinct? Do the two species coexist peacefully or not so peacefully?

Something IS happening in our midst and a resounding YES we look the same BUT we are NOT all the same!!! I wholeheartedly agree with your observations.

Well i see the exact same changes. but i feel most of these changes are more in attitude rather than actual genes mutating. i feel that something, volcano(s), meteor the size of texas, wars, famine or desease, climate change, or a combination will knock us back to the stone age like you have prophecised here from time to time. as far as new diseases or pan negative staph bugs, they’re here. when Mt. St. Helens erupted in WA back in 1980 i think it was, the pyroclastic flow ran into a nearby lake. killing everything in it, fish, plants bugs. turned it acidic if i remember right. as time went by scientists and biologists watched how life re- evolved as the waters cleared. took about 30 years until they had to plant trout. in that whole 30 year process they discovered 2 new strains of pneumonia virus. brand new or just previousely undiscovered, the vaccines today are useless. see, ol’ mother nature is a mad scientist. whether it is God almighty wiping the world clean with fire or flood, of just mother nature having a bad time of it, neither are prejudiced or biased. they treat everyone equally, yet at the same time they both have very bad manners. they don’t knock, they barge right in, and never, ever do they say excuse me!

Mother nature is cruel, often, and the smell of nature is STINK… mostly. As for God I find that he/she most often works through nature (Noah’s flood, Sodom, etc etc etc). The St Helen’s eruption was quite an eye opener for many and I remember hearing reports that it was not going to blow and the next thing POW it blew!! Yes, the return of life only took 30 years, there about, and there were at least 2 forms of flu virus detected that we’d never seen before.

We may well be headed for yet another mass extinction event and this time it may well be HUMANS! Whatever the cause is I believe it will be a combination of causes as seldom is there only one cause of anything. And, yes, those who survive will be knocked back to the STONE AGE and humanity shall begin again.

Speaking of the present flu EPIDEMIC I’ve been scratching my head all day over a report I heard this morning on “Good Morning America.” They reported that one person died of “flu related complications” after it “mutated” into a “flesh eating virus.” What???? Since when does the flu do that? And so I’ve been wondering all day long IF we are dealing with the common flu here OR something else? And I don’t rely on that FARCE we call the CDC to tell us the truth about anything!

OMG, really? i say that the flesh eating virus was already a resident at the “healthcare” facility. i know 3 people who have been screwed over by the monopolistic totalitarian regime here. 2 of them were employees. the other was a paying customer, innocent victim, collaterol damage. (potato, potato)

not only are there those very real diseases, that are either undiscovered or recently evolved, the drug co. through a brand new ad campaign are creating a brand new “desease”. you might be familiar, it is “pre-diabetes”. if you don’t do a thousand sit-ups, push-ups, chin-ups, and run 500 miles a day, you may have it!

i saw on the news a similar report about the flu. it showed 2 people who were the most “at risk”. one was about 97, confined to a wheel chair and on his best days still required 24/7 care. the other had some other things wrong, was 10 or 11 yoa, and was morbidly obese. ( which to me was the biggest of all the other problems, except the germ itself) why has it become so unpopular and unfashionable to use a healthy diet and your god-given immune system to ward off the flu? i got the flu last year. i don’t see all of the panic and hubbub. why go to a hospital where you might get flesh eating bacteria or a pan-negative mutated bacteria like MRSA? i take 2 echinacia and 1 v-c, drink extra orange juice and go about my day. it was easy to trace where i got it probably. my wife who probably got it from the teacher in her class room. my wife is a teacher asst. the teacher, it should be noted DID GET a flu shot. she then went and tried tamiflu, and that gave her convulsive nausea for 36 more hours. i’d rather have the flu and the best thing about it is it has no co-payment or deductable to pay for.

i have a brain- bender question. one of those that require you to think and weigh information that is common knowledge. what is the name of this flavor enhancer? i am going to give you some clues as to what it is. it can be found anywhere in the world. it can be had by everyone in the world. it is absolutely free, doesn’t cost a thin dime. it is all natural, possibly organic. it cannot be mined like salt. it cannot be grown like garlic or cumin. 40% of the American population have never experienced this flavor enhancer. in some parts of the world, to much of it is downright deadly! it can be spoiled with cookies, if you eat enough of them. so, what is the name of this flavor enhancer? there are 2 maybe more right or acceptable answers. all replies are welcome;D

Sadly we live in a world that desires instant gratification. Got a problem? Go to the doc and he’ll pull a “magic answer” out of his “magic box.” We live in a nation of drug addicts (illegal OR legal drugs) but we are dependent on them nevertheless (or we think we are). I take the natural remedy route and avoid synthetic drugs as much as possible. Not saying that mainstream medicine doesn’t have its place because it does BUT I don’t see it as the first answer for everything. I look at other people my age and they’re taking 5-10 medications which is frightening. I often wonder just what kind of drug/toxin those drugs form in their bodies. They take one drug and have to take another to counter side effects and yet another to counter the drug that is suppose to alleviate the side effects. It’s a vicious and deadly circle IMO.

I also look at their diets. HORRIBLE!! I notice very few fruits and vegetables in their daily diets and, frankly, for the most part they consume what I call “stomach filler.” And that’s about all it is with little to no nutritional value. And exercise? Forget it. Their exercise consists of walking from the living room to the bathroom and then on to bed. A change in diet, exercise, and losing some weight would do wonders for most people but this all takes work, God forbid. It’s much easier to just pop a pill.

Big pharma is big business. In fact, their profits reach or exceed those of the oil companies now. A close friend of mine used to work for one of the rats and she told me that they make a pill for about 10 cents and sell it for $5. That’s one hell of a profit!! Regarding the flu shot another close friend had one about 2 years ago and almost died. She’s never had one since.

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