The Cocoliztli Epidemic or the Great Pestilence[1] was an outbreak of a mysterious illness characterized by high fevers and bleeding which caused 5–15 million deaths in New Spain during the 16th century. The Aztec people called it cocoliztli, Nahuatl for pestilence. It ravaged the Mexican highlands in epidemic proportions, resulting in the demographic collapse of some Indigenous populations.[2][3]
Based on the death toll, this outbreak is often referred to as the worst epidemic in the history of Mexico.[4] Subsequent outbreaks continued to baffle both Spanish and native doctors, with little consensus among modern researchers on the pathogenesis. However, recent bacterial genomic studies have suggested that Salmonella, specifically a serotype of Salmonella enterica known as Paratyphi C, was at least partially responsible for this initial outbreak.[5] Others believe cocoliztli was caused by an indigenous viral hemorrhagic fever, perhaps exacerbated by the worst droughts to affect that region in 500 years and poor living conditions for Indigenous peoples of Mexico following the Spanish conquest (c. 1519).[3]
- ^ Skaarup 2015, p. 205.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Acuna-Soto_2004was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ a b Cite error: The named reference
Acuna-Soto_2002was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Prem, Hanns (1991). "Disease Outbreaks in Central Mexico During the Sixteenth Century". In Cook, Noble David; Lovell, W. George (eds.). "Secret Judgments of God": Old World Disease in Colonial Spanish America. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. pp. 20–48. ISBN 0806123729.
- ^ Vågene, Åshild; et al. (2018). "Salmonella enterica genomes from victims of a major sixteenth-century epidemic in Mexico". Nature Ecology & Evolution. 2 (3): 520–528. Bibcode:2018NatEE...2..520V. doi:10.1038/s41559-017-0446-6. PMID 29335577. S2CID 3358440.