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How smallpox devastated the Aztecs – and helped Spain conquer an American civilization 500 years ago

  • Written by Richard Gunderman, Chancellor's Professor of Medicine, Liberal Arts, and Philanthropy, Indiana University
How smallpox devastated the Aztecs – and helped Spain conquer an American civilization 500 years agoA 16th-century Aztec drawing of smallpox victims.

Recent outbreaks in the U.S. have drawn attention to the dangers of measles. The Democratic Republic of Congo is fighting a deadly outbreak of Ebola that has killed hundreds.

Epidemics are nothing new, of course. And some widespread infectious dieseases have profoundly changed the course of human...

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