THE 10 WORST EPIDEMICS IN THE HISTORY OF MEXICO - HISTORY - 2025

Some of the epidemics in Mexico that have caused the most damage were tuberculosis, smallpox, typhus, measles or cholera. Perhaps the best known was the one that occurred after the arrival of the Spanish to the Inca Empire; Because the natives were not immunized, they easily contracted diseases and died quickly.

The first contact with Europeans was devastating for the native population of Mexico. It is estimated that before Spanish contact, the Mexican population was 15 to 30 million. In 1620, this number fell precipitously to an estimated 1.2 million.

Measles arrived in the early 1530s. A major epidemic struck again in the 1570s, probably typhus. Cholera first appeared in Mexico in the 1830s, but it did not affect the population as much as smallpox.

Pre-Columbian Mexicans suffered from osteoarthritis due to continuous physical exertion. On the other hand, evidence of tuberculosis, anemia and syphilis has been found dating back 3,000 years.

You may also be interested in the social problems of Mexico.

10 epidemics throughout the history of Mexico

1- Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis was known in Mexico since pre-Columbian times, but it was not until 1882 when Roberto Koch made it known worldwide that a specific name was assigned to this pathology, and from 1896 it began to be studied in detail in Mexico.

Tuberculosis presented with yellow nodules and granulations surrounded by hard, fibrous-looking tissues. Unfortunately, patients diagnosed with tuberculosis were almost always already in an advanced state, so their relatives were easily infected.

Over the years, the study of tuberculosis advanced rapidly, allowing the various patients with this disease to be diagnosed and effectively treated.

2- Syphilis

Starting in 1529, there was an increase in the amount of venereal diseases present in both the conquerors and the Mexican female population.

In the seventeenth century there was another increase in venereal disease problems due to the arrival of large numbers of immigrants who lived in crowded conditions and who did not have good hygiene habits.

It was only after 1910 that the Wassermann reaction began to be used to diagnose syphilis. Since then in Mexico they have become more concerned with prevention campaigns throughout the country.

3- Smallpox

Smallpox was introduced into America in 1520 when the Narvaéz expedition arrived at the port of Veracruz, it spread among the indigenous people very quickly and in most of the provinces it killed almost half of the Aztecs since from 1519 to 1520 it killed between 5 8 million people, including killing one of the last Aztec leaders, Cuitlahuatzin.

In 1798 and 1803, the Spanish organized a mission to transport an early smallpox vaccine to Spanish colonies in the Americas and the Philippines, both to try to control the disease and to reduce the number of deaths from smallpox. This disease was not completely erased until the early 1950s.

4- Measles

Measles arrived in Mexico in the early 1530s thanks to the Spanish. The Indians called it záhuatl tepiton which means "small leprosy", in order to distinguish it from smallpox.

In various images of the Aztecs it is represented as black spots on the body of men. The Franciscans helped the Indians fight measles from 1532.

5- Typhus

During the 16th century, typhoid fever was gradually distinguished from diseases with similar clinical manifestations, as physicians learned to recognize typhus by its sudden onset and characteristic rash. Epidemic typhus was not precisely distinguished from typhoid fever until 1836.

A great epidemic of typhus struck the Mexican population in the 1570s, however, several epidemics of matlazáhuatl (indigenous name for typhus) attacked the population periodically. Various indigenous images depict typhus sufferers with their skin covered in brownish spots.

Body lice infestation and typhus posed public health problems in Mexico until recently. The cases of typhus transmitted by lice occurred mainly in cold months and in rural communities.

From the late 19th century to 1963, the annual mortality rate from epidemic typhus in rural Mexico steadily decreased from 52.4 to 0.1 cases among 100,000 people, and by 1979 no cases had been reported for 10 years.

6- Cholera

Cholera first appeared in Mexico in the 1830s, but it did not affect the population as much as smallpox did. Between 1991 and 2002 there was a small epidemic with a number of cases of 45,977 people and a mortality rate of 1.2%.

7- Hemorrhagic fever

Known as cocoliztli (Nahuatl for "plague") it killed an estimated 5-15 million people (80% of Mexico's native population) between 1545 and 1548.

Another cocoliztli epidemic killed an additional 2 to 2.5 million people (about 50% of the remaining native population) between 1576 and 1578.

8- Spanish flu

The 1918 flu epidemic was a deadly form of the influenza A virus strain of the H1N1 subtype. It is believed to be a mutated swine virus from China that killed some 20-100 million people around the world.

It is estimated that one third of the world's population was infected. This flu epidemic is known as “Spanish flu”, since Spain was one of the countries particularly affected by this virus and because it reported it openly, while most countries had restrictions in times of war.

9- Salmonella

Some strains of salmonella can cause serious illnesses, such as typhoid fever, which can even be fatal. One particular strain, known as Paratyphi C, causes enteric fever (fever in the intestines).

When left untreated it can kill 10 to 15 percent of those infected. The Paratyphi C strain is now extremely rare and affects mostly poor people in developing countries where sanitary conditions can be very poor.

10- bubonic plague

In 1902 the black plague arrived in the port of Mazatlán, this plague was characterized by swollen glands, fever and headache.

As sanitary measures, the drains were closed, isolation centers were established and the entrances and exits to the city were supervised. It was only after almost 3 years that the bubonic plague gradually ceased.

References

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5. Pruitt S. Did Salmonella kill off the Aztecs? (2017). Recovered from: history.com.
6. Sepúlveda J, Valdespino JL, García L. Cholera in Mexico: the paradoxical benefits of the last pandemic (2005). International Journal of Infectious Diseases.
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