The first enemy of Man is the microbe, especially the journey of microbes…
- The Aztec population was decimated by salmonella, a well-known bacterium.
- The threat of a mutation of a microbe or a bacterium always worries specialists.
Before Christopher Columbus headed for the new world, Mexico was a kind of paradise, and the Aztecs, its inhabitants, had built a splendid civilization there, composed of scholars and architects, whose traces are still visible on the territory. There are few explanations in the history books on the reasons for their disappearance. The weapons at the time were not efficient enough to explain such a genocide. But we forget that these are not the junk jewels that the explorers brought with them, but small organisms, weapons of mass destruction, which have always existed and which currently retain all their virulence.
Salmonella, responsible for the devastating epidemic
Modern history willingly acknowledges this. On the other hand, we did not know what “weapons” had struck: diphtheria, smallpox, plague… the great figures of the devastating epidemics of the Middle Ages.
Actually no ! Review Nature Ecology & Evolution revealed the name of the culprit. This is a very widespread bacterium, the famous Salmonella.
It was the reading of the descriptions of the ante-mortem symptoms, and especially the search for DNA on the bone remains, which revealed who was responsible for the death of 80% of the inhabitants of the coastal zones and 50% of the interior zones. A health disaster that precipitated the fall of an entire civilization.
Contamination, whether through sexual relations or by pets coming with the crews, was massive and rapid.
The threat of an epidemic remains present
When returning from the Moon for the first time, the astronauts had to be quarantined for a long time, as the new explorers were well aware that their ancestors may have caused damage during their distant journeys. The quarantine of astronauts ready to smile today, but microbiologists are aware that the world is at the mercy of a rapid and unexplained mutation of a harmless virus or an ordinary bacterium. The Covid-19 pandemic is a very recent illustration of this.
We still let ourselves be surprised: we know, for example, that planes were not without responsibility in the outbreak of the AIDS epidemic, a very old virus hidden somewhere and that its export has awakened.
What if, tomorrow, a ship from another world landed on our good old Earth? It’s not just Hollywood screenwriters who think about it…
