No antibodies to common ilnesses

[dardyhardy]

I remember from history class that when the European countries invaded the Americas they brought diseases that were (more) harmless to them but extremely fatal to the natives because they hadn't developed the proper antibodies. These diseases killed more natives than the wars ever did.

My question is, why didn't it work the other way around? Why didn't the natives have diseases that the Europeans didn't have antibodies for and was deadly for them?

[dundurn]

There's a distinct possibility they did. What became known as the Spanish pox, syphilis, appears to have been unknown before Columbus' voyages to the West Indies. The jury is still out some extent but there is a real chance that the disease which became the scourge of Western Europe (and later North America) until the introduction of sulfa drugs was imported with the silver, parrots and slaves which formed the booty of the conquistadores.

[dardyhardy]

Thanks for the info, I didn't know that. But syphilis is a STD, weren't the European diseases much more easily transmitted?
I remember reading that often the disease (e.g. smapllpox) traveled much faster than the European army and the native population was already severly decimated before they even got there. Surely syphilis was much different and slower spreading than that? I'm just wondering, is it perhaps something in the climate that such plague-like diseases don't develope?

[Ethel]

The Black Death (Black Plague) originated in Asia in the early 14th Century and spread to Europe, with an estimated 20 million deaths in Europe and 75 million worldwide.

Cholera started in India, in the River Ganges, in the 19th century, wiping out hundreds of thousands of Indians and at least 10000 British Army troops.
It got carried from port to port and became a worldwide killer.

But to address your question specifically, this is an excellent article:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg13618424 .700-how-columbus-sickened-the-new-world-why-w ere-nativeamericans-so-vulnerable-to-the-disea ses-european-settlers-brought-with-them.html

[dardyhardy]

Thank you, an extremely useful article that answers all my questions, I never would have made the connection with domesticated animals, very sad but also very interesting. Thanks again.

[King Normie]

Damned it ye ain't posted an Interesting Conundrum there, dardyhardy!

Might be that Europe, by then, had a Long History
of Tribal and Cultural Intermingling . . . but, in North America, the Original Natives from Asia came in from the West and migrated South, while the Original Americans from Europe spread down the Eastern Coast and west to the Mississippi River. Seldom did they intermix, until the Later Eurpoean Conquest began. Antibodies, for Europeans, may have already been established genetic traits . . .