Infectious diseases

Name: New World Plague

Year: 1520

Dead: 150,000

The New World Pandemic, so called because it spread to America after the arrival of the Spanish forces, was a smallpox epidemic that manifested itself in the Aztec Empire (today’s Mexico) starting from April 1520.

In June of the same year, Spanish troops entered the capital of the Aztec Empire, Tenochtitlán, and in the middle of October the virus spread to all cities of the Empire, killing about half of the population, which according to some studies , is hypothesized on the 300,000 people.

Among the dead are also the Aztec emperor, Cuitláhuac, and some of his main servants.

The virus spread much more easily in the city of Tenochtitlán, due to the high density, than in other areas of the empire, such as the Great Plain of the United States.

The smallpox virus, Orthopoxvirus Variola, has two viral membranes and the viral DNA includes about 160,000 pairs of nitrogen bases and about ten enzymes involved in the transcription of it.

Source: web