User:CERosas/sandbox

Topic: Diseases and the Atlantic Slave Trade/Triangular Trade

Would go under the broad topic of the Atlantic Slave trade as a subsection on health/diseases

Talks about which diseases were brought from the Old World to the New World.

Could explain why certain populations (such as the Native/indigenous populations) were decimated and why others (such as the African slave population) were able to survive through the same diseases in the New World.

Diseases
Notable diseases not originally known as present in Americas before 1492 include those such as smallpox, malaria, bubonic plague, typhus, influenza, measles, diphtheria, yellow fever, and whooping cough. During the Atlantic slave trade following the discovery of the New World, diseases such as these possessed the capability of obliterating populations such as the Natives by the masses as short amount of time as a few weeks or months.

Smallpox
Smallpox was one of the epidemics that surrounded the Atlantic slave trade from the 15th to the 18th centuries. Diseases like smallpox were known for causing a significant decrease in the indigenous population of the New World. An explanation to aid in understanding the logistics behind the extensive population decrease includes the topic of immunity. The native population was not immune to this disease in that they did not have the pathogen required to resist the disease. Those such as the European colonizers and the African slaves brought to the New World, however, did possess this pathogen due to having been previously exposed to smallpox. It was known to be a common illness many underwent as children, which in turn built up their immunity to withstand this disease. As a result of the Native Americans no longer being able to work the lands (as the labor required them to mine gold and silver), European colonizers, such as the Portuguese took advantage of their access to regions of the African continent such as Angola from which to extract another source of labor in which Africans had proven to be prime candidates in that they survived this case of the disease- also known as variola intermedius- while the Natives had continued to fall to the various illnesses.

Effects of smallpox included fever, bodily eruptions, and was very noticeable in the disfigurement seen of the face, hands, and feet. This illness is a viral disease -contracted through contact with an exposed individual and through the air. Being that it is a virus, that there are no specific drug treatments to combat it such as those that later arose to combat bacterial infections such as Syphilis. In terms of image, many-such as those who believed the plague of syphilis in Europe to be the fault of the Amerindians- saw smallpox as the European revenge against the Natives.

Immunity
For many diseases, the African and Eurasian population were able to have already acquired immunity- being able to resist an infection- due to prior exposure as children in which they were less likely to receive the same illness again. Upon arrival, these diseases were transmitted to the Native populations who did not have immunity due to no prior exposure having been from climates in which these germs, and pathogens surrounding these diseases were not common. Having been exposed to the illness as an adult, some effects would prove to be more enhanced than if they were to be at an adolescent age.

Evolutionary history also played a role in being immune to the diseases of the slave trade. Compared to African and Europeans, New World populations did not have a history of exposure to the disease, and therefore, no genetic resistance could be maintained as a result of adaptation through evolution.

Levels and extent of immunity varies from disease to disease. For smallpox and measles for example, those who survive are equipped with the cellular immunity to combat the disease for the rest of their life in that they cannot contract the disease again. There are also diseases in which immunity does not guarantee that an individual is not susceptible to becoming reinfected.

Inoculation
Due to a limited knowledge on the causation and range of effects of diseases surrounding the event of the slave trade, there were little to no methods for inoculation present during the time. In the late 16th century with the increased presence of smallpox, there existed some forms of inoculation or sometimes referred to as variolation in Africa and the Middle East. One practice features Arab traders in Africa "buying-off" the disease in which a cloth that had been previously exposed to the sickness was to be tied to another child's arm to increase immunity. Another practice involved taking pus from a smallpox scab and putting it in the cut of a healthy individual in an attempt to have a mild case of the disease in the future rather than the effects becoming fatal.

As epidemiology advances, causes and effective treatments are being discovered to combat historically destructive diseases such as syphilis- which in today can be treated with simple antibiotics such as penicillin and other medications that can inhibit and rid the body of harmful bacteria.