USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Death was due to systemic shock (body-wide infection) and toximemia (toxins in the blood). Smallpox is a very contagious disease, with secondary attacks affecting up to 80% of household contacts. Often, people who survived the disease had long-term problems, such as blindness and severe scarring.

Detailed explanation-2: -The English term pox was used to describe various eruptive diseases, including a pox disease that came to be known as smallpox. In the 16th century, variola became popularly known as the “small pox, ” to distinguish it from syphilis (the “Great Pox”).

Detailed explanation-3: -The New World of the Western Hemisphere was devastated by the 1775–1782 North American smallpox epidemic. Estimates based on remnant settlements say 30, 000, 000 people were estimated to have died in the epidemic that started in 1775.

Detailed explanation-4: -A great many died from this plague, and many others died of hunger. They could not get up to search for food, and everyone else was too sick to care for them, so they starved to death in their beds.” By 1520 Tenochtitlan was under siege by Cortés and the people were both starving and dying from smallpox.