History of Small Pox

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History of Smallpox

Infectious diseases are those which are caused by pathogenic (disease-causing) microorganisms such as bacteria, viruses, parasites and fungi. Such diseases can spread directly or indirectly from one person to another.¹

The Native American population were exposed to this with the arrival of the European settlers who brought with them amongst their new technologies and lifestyles; new diseases that the native population had never encountered previously.

Due to a lack of previous engagement with such European settlers and diseases from a far off continent, the Native Americans neither had the developed immune systems nor the appropriate availability or knowledge of medicine to combat these diseases which would eventually spread as epidemics with more often than not, tragic consequences. One such disease was smallpox; an infectious disease caused by the variola virus which would affect the skin, mouth and throats of infected individuals before progressing to the full body rash and eventually fluid-raised blisters which were the characteristic ‘pox’ associated with the disease (along with a high fever, malaise, muscle pain and headaches). The fatality rate of the disease was often just over 30%.²

Smallpox was a scourge of the Native America populations and it was common for the disease to affect the same tribes repeatedly with its sweeping epidemics. One notable epidemic includes that of 1639 which struck the Huron tribes the Great Lakes and St Lawrence regions wiping out approximately 50% of the population.³ There were four major epidemics between the mid and late 19th Century which had a profound effect on the Plains tribes whilst the pandemic between 1837 and 1840 was estimated to have claimed the lives of between 100,000 and 300,000 Native Americans.⁴ This particular epidemic was thought to have contributed to the near extinction of the Mandan tribe of North Dakota.⁵

Effective vaccination policy to benefit the Native American population would not come into place until May 1900 through the passing of the Indian Legislation of the United States, which sanctioned the spending of $50,000 (or more as deemed appropriate) to combat smallpox in Native American territories. By 1907, the effect of smallpox had become virtually insignificant with the compulsory vaccination of school-attending Native American children and by 1938, only death from smallpox was reported from a total of 5,078 deaths amongst Native Americans.⁶

Other notable infectious diseases to have affected the Native America populations include diphtheria, measles, typhoid, tuberculosis, cholera and also sexually transmitted diseases. The references below offer opportunities for further reading in this subject.

References.

1. World Health Organization (WHO). ‘Infectious Diseases’. http://www.who.int/topics/infectious_diseases/en/

2. Ryan, K.J., Ray, C.G. (2004). ‘Sherris Medical Microbiology’, Fourth Edition, pp525-8, McGraw Hill.

3. Bruce T. (1985). Natives and Newcomers: ‘Canada’s “Heroic Age” Reconsidered’. First Edition, Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 588-589.

4. Waldman, Carl (2009). ‘Atlas of the North American Indian’. New York: Checkmark Books. p. 206.

5. Stearn E. W. (1945). ‘The effect of smallpox on the destiny of the Amerindian’. First Edition, Boston: Bruce Humphries Inc.

6. Patterson K. B., and Runge T. (2002). ‘Smallpox and the Native American’. American Journal of the Medical Sciences 2002 Apr;323(4):216-22