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Supplementary online material

Most relevant diseases and epidemics of the Alto Peru according to the Relaciones

As part of the processes of “ecological Imperialism” (Crosby 1988: 211), the first European disease that arrived in America could have been influenza, caused by the Influenza virus (Estrella 1993), mentioned in the Relaciones as “hay fever or allergies”, generally during cold periods. However, smallpox, caused by the Orthopox virus, which appeared in 1518, was the one to bring more distress. Shortly afterwards, measles arrived in 1530, caused by Morbillivirus of the Paromyxoviridae family, and also one of its relatives, rubella or German measles.

Exanthematic typhus was first mentioned in Mexico in 1526. The responsible agent is Rikkettsia prowazeki, and at the time it was known as tifo, tabardillo, tabardete, among many other terms. Sometimes it was referred to simply as a “headache”. This disease, transmitted by the human louse, is frequent even today in the Peruvian and Bolivian Andes. Conditions favoring the life cycle of louse are poor personal hygiene, excess population and cold temperatures. The symptoms are headaches, chills, high fever, coughs and severe muscle pain (Burnet and White 1982:188).

The American epidemiological profile was completed with the contribution of transmittable diseases of African origin (Estrella 1993). The most important were malaria or paludism, called tertian fever (tercianas) by the Spaniards, and yellow fever. The former is transmitted by a mosquito from the genus Anopheles, and its symptoms are fever, chills, headache, nausea, vomit and diarrhea. Generally, it develops in warm rainy areas (Burnet and White 1982:70).

Yellow fever is caused by a Flavivirus. The vector mosquito in rain forest areas belongs the genus Haemagogus (relatives of the Aedes aegypti mosquito). When rains are light, the number of vectors is limited. When rains are abundant, mosquitoes swarm, transmitting the virus to livestock and humans. Yellow fever reached high diffusion in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, mostly affecting American tropical areas. Its symptoms are vomiting blood, yellow-tinted skin, abdominal swelling, and headaches (Cordero del Campillo 2001:606). In the Relaciones it is also called fever, hot flashes, malignant fever and putrid fever (fiebre, calentura, fiebre maligna and fiebre pútrida).

Intestinal infections were also common in the Spanish colonies, primarily in humid tropical zones. The responsible bacteria are Salmonella and Shigella disenteraiae. Amoebaean dysentery is caused by an unspecialized parasite, Ameba histolitica (Burnet and White 1982:65).The Spaniards made no distinction between these two diseases that were generally called dysentery, reported as loss of blood or rectal bleeding (cursos de sangre or cursos). In both cases the intestines are damaged, causing blood loss and intense pain. Currently, dysentery epidemics have shown high morbidity and mortality rates among flood refugees.

Sources also make reference to dry cough and side pain(tos seca, dolor de costado or costado). These could be the symptoms of pleurisy, which is characterized by acute pain accompanied by a dry cough. The dictionary by S. de Cobarrubias (1977) edited in 1610 describes this disease (side pain or dolor de costado) as:“Costis was so called because the ribs extend from the spine, wrap around one side and the other; in Greek it is called pleura, and thereby pleuritis, flank pain” (Cobarrubias 1977:362).

Erysipelas is cited for the first time in Alto Peru at the outset of the nineteenth century, at the time of the great drought of 1800-1805. It is a bacterial skin infection typically caused by group A beta-hemolytic streptococci that affects large population groups, mostly children and adults over 30 years old. If not properly treated it can lead to death, even today (Tandeter 1991). Cobarrubias (1977:485) defines it as: ”Erisípula: we commonly take it to be a certain blood disease ... that flows to the face and the rest of the body parts, and keeps spreading over the body and multiplying”.

Accompanying erysipelas, angina (esquinencia) also emerged in this period, “which we call guillotine”, tonsillitis, or acute pharyngitis, and it was likely due to complication of infections caused by group A. streptococci (Burnet and White 1982:245).

Croup (garrotillo) or laryngeal diphtheria is also mentioned during the dry period. It is an infectious and contagious disease, caused by the bacillus Corynebacterum diphteriae (Burnet and White 1982:245). It is characterized by vomiting, fever and the formation of membranes in the throat, which produce suffocation and cause death by asphyxia. Cobarrubias asserted that croup (garrotillo) is a “certain blood disease that flows up to the throat and stops respiration, as if the said patient were punished with the garrotte” (Cobarrubias 1977:582) (from the “garrote” instrument of capital punishment).

Other diseases mentioned in the Relaciones are fevers or plagues with no precise identification.

Table: Climate, epidemics and diseases in Alto Peru, 1785-1804.

Year / Intendencia / Rains and Floods / Temp. / Epidemics and Disease / Source
1785
(second half) / Potosí / Scarce / Frosts / dysentery,
rubella,
typhus / AGI. Bs. As 73
La Paz / Scarce
Puno / Abundant
La Plata / Scarce
Cochabamba / Scarce
1786
(first half) / Potosí / Scarce / Frosts / AGI. Ind. Gral.
1559
Cochabamba / Scarce
1786
(second half) / Potosí / Scarce / Very cold / typhus , pleurisy (Lampa) / AGI. Ind. Gral.
1559
La Paz / Scarce
Puno / Scarce
La Plata / Scarce
Cochabamba / Scarce
1787
(first half) / Potosí / Scarce / Very cold
Frosts / hay fever
epidemics, measles, smallpox, pleurisy (Sica-Sica and Pacajes)
Typhus (Tomina)
malaria and yellow fever, general fevers (Apolobamba) / AGI. Ind. Gral.
1559
La Paz / Scarce
Puno / Scarce
La Plata / Abundant
Cochabamba / Scarce
1787
(second half) / Potosí / Abundant / Frosts / typhus,
measles, general fevers. / AGI. Bs. As. 99
La Plata / Abundant / typhus,
measles, general fevers.
Puno / Scarce / dysentery, measles, yellow fever (Chucuito)
La Paz / Normal / Sicasica: smallpox, hay fever,
Epidemics, measles.
(Pacajes and Sica-Sica)
Cochabamba / Normal / dysentery,
measles,
(Azangaro, Caravaya, Apolobamba)
Yungas: malaria, smallpox (Yunas)
1788
(first half) / Potosí / Very abundant / Floods / smallpox, pleurisy,
Measles
(Atacama)
typhus, measles,
yellow fever
(Carangas)
measles
dysentery, typhus
(Apopaya, Mizque, Pilaya y Paspaya)
typhus, yellow fever
(Chucuito)
malaria, measles
(Socaba,Tapacarí, Yungas) / AGI Bs.As. 107
La Plata
Puno
La Paz
Cochabamba
1788
(second half) / Potosí / Normal / Floods / yellow fever, measles, dysentery.
(Porcos)
smallpox, measles
(Tarija)
malaria, dysentery
(Yungas, (Apolobamba) / AGI. Bs. As. 107
La Plata / Very Abundant
Puno / Abundant
La Paz / Normal
Cochabamba / Very Abundant
1789
(first half) / Potosí / Abundant / Temperate / AGI. Bs. As. 109
La Plata / Abundant
Puno / Abundant
La Paz / Normal
Cochabamba / Very abundant
1789
(second half) / Potosí / Scarce / malaria,
typhus, diarrhea (Chulumani) / AGI. Bs. As. 109
La Plata / Very abundant
Puno / Scarce
La Paz / Scarce
Cochabamba / Scarce
1790
(first half) / Potosí / Scarce / Frosts / malaria
(Tomina)
smallpox, dysentery
(Larecaja, La Paz capital)
typhus, pleurisy,
malaria, dysentery,
smallpox
(Chulumani) / AGI. Bs. As. 109
La Plata
Puno
La Paz
Cochabamba
1796
(first half) / Potosí / Normal / AGI. Bs. As. 590
La Plata / No Data
Puno / No Data
La Paz / Normal
Cochabamba / Normal
1796
(second half) / Potosí / Scarce / AGI. Bs. As. 590
La Plata / Scarce
Puno / No Data
La Paz / Normal
Cochabamba / Normal
1797
(first half) / Potosí / Normal / AGI. Bs. As. 21
AGI. I G 1559
La Plata / No Data
Puno / No Data
La Paz / Abundant
Cochabamba / Normal
1797
(second half) / Potosí / Scarce / dysentery (La Paz capital) / AGI, Bs. As. 21
AGI, Bs. As. 587
La Plata / Scarce
Puno / No Data
La Paz / No Data
Cochabamba / No Data
1798
(first half) / Potosí / Scarce / AGI. Bs. As. 586-587
La Plata / No Data
Puno / No Data
La Paz / Scarce
Cochabamba / Abundant
1800 / Potosí / Scarce / Tandeter
1991
La Plata / Very scarce
Puno / No Data
La Paz / Very scarce
Cochabamba / Very scarce
1801
(first half) / Potosí / Scarce / AGI. Bs. As. 383
La Plata / No Data
Puno / No Data
La Paz / Scarce
Cochabamba / No Data
1801
(second half) / La Paz / Abundant / AGI. Bs. As. 383
1802
(first half) / Potosí / Scarce / smallpox,
dysentery
(Potosí capital and Chichas) / AGI. Bs. As. 587
La Plata
Puno
La Paz
Cochabamba
1803 / Potosí / Scarce / general epidemics, scarlet fever (La Paz capital and Omasuios)
erisipelas, angina, diphteria, typhus,
(Chayanta, Oruro, Carangas)
erisypelas, angina, diphteria (La Paz, capital)
erisypelas , angina, diphteria (Cochabamba capital) / Tandeter
(1991)
La Plata
Puno
La Paz
Cochabamba
1804 / Potosí / Very scarce / AGN
IX-18-7-2
11/6/1804
Tandeter
(1991)
La Plata
La Paz
Cochabamba

Source: Relaciones

Intendencia / Partido / Ecological Regions
Puno / Puno or Paucarcolla / Puna and Yungas
Azangara / Puna and Yungas
Carabaya / Yungas
Lampa / Puna
Chuchuito / Puna
La Paz / La Paz (capital) / Puna
Pacajes / Puna
Sica-Sica / Puna and Yungas
La Recaja / Puna and Yungas
Omasuios / Puna and Yungas
Yungas Chulumani / Yungas
Potosí / Potosí (capital) / Puna and Queshua
Porco / Puna and Queshua
Chayanta / Puna and Queshua
Chichas / Puna and Queshua
Lípez / Puna
Atacama / Puna
Oruro / Puna
Paria / Puna
Tarija / Queshua and other zones
La Plata / La Plata (capital) / Queshua
Pilaya and Paspaya / Queshua
Tomina / Queshua
Yamparaes / Queshua
Mizque / Queshua and Yungas
Apopaya / Yungas
Cochabamba / Cochabamba (capital) / Queshua
Tapacarí / Queshua and Puna
Arque / Queshua
Sacaba / Queshua
Clisa / Queshua
Santa Cruz / Other zones
Valle Grande / Others zones

Table: Political and administrative entities and ecological and cultural regions, in late eighteenth century Alto Peru. Source: “Relaciones” (AGI, Audiencia de Buenos Aires, files 21, 73, 99, 107, 109, 383, 586, 587, 590; Indiferente General 1528, 1559; Ellemberg H. 1981; Morello J. 1983).

Years / Deceased
Index:100=340.1 / Mortality
(x 1000)
1775-1799 / 100.0 / 23.7
1800 / 77.8 / 19.4
1801 / 135.1 / 33.7
1802 / 100.2 / 25.0
1803 / 151.6 / 37.8
1804 / 199.5 / 49.8
1805 / 446.0 / 111.3
1806 / 159.7 / 39.9

Table: Deceases and annual mortality rates, Sacaba and Acasio, 1775-1805

Source: Tandeter 1991

Probability of disease outbreak relative to normal rainfall
Disease / Very Scarce / Very Abundant
PULMONARY / + 56% *** / + 14% **
MOSQUITO / + 4% / + 19% **
VIRAL / + 8% / + 37% ***
TYPHUS / + 30% * / + 15%
DYSENTERY / + 0% / - 4%
ANY DISEASE / + 59% *** / + 53% ***

Table: Effect of very scarce and very abundant rainfall on the probability of disease outbreak Source: “Relaciones ”

Notes: Estimated using the cross-panel, random effect logit models in Appendix 1. Asterisks denote significance: *** = p<0.05; ** = p<0.10; * = p<0.15. To interpret the results check the figures in parentheses, which measure the increase in probability of moving from 0 to 2.

Fig: Epidemics in Alto Peru during the second half of 1786 and 1787, by partido (dry and cold period). M = malaria, Y = yellow fever, T = typhus.

Fig: Epidemics in Alto Peru during 1788, by partido (Period of high rains and frequent floods)

Fig: Epidemics in Alto Peru from the second half of 1797 to 1805, by partido (prolonged drought)

Final del formulario