Brief history of tropical diseases in America
Abstract
The tropical region comprises the area between Cancer and Capricorn tropics where countries with large natural resources and low or lower-middleincome economies are located. Moreover, the region climatic characteristics are conducive to the development of pathogens causing serious diseases on the human population. In the American tropics the term tropical disease is the result of a socialhistorical process observed by Europeans during the conquest and colony periods. Tropical diseases did not exist before the Spaniards arrival. When conquerors arrived they brought pathogens, which caused almost 90 % of the population’s death, being the most devastating epidemics: smallpox, measles and flu. The continent conquest was largely made possible by the biological exchange between conquerors and conquered, along with the destruction of two of the most advanced American civilizations: the Aztec in Mexico and the Inca in Peru. During the following centuries, the biological exchange has been extended; tropical diseases are now present throughout the world and must be attended regardless of the world region in which they manifest.
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