Columbian Exchange Expansion - WI: New Diseases and Parasites to Europe.

[NothingNow]

So, yeah, What would the effects of a few Parasitic diseases (which the new World is lousy with) making their way over to Europe be? I'm talking of things like Chagas, Human Botflies, and River Blindness each making their way to europe, and finding environments and hosts.

Really, while I doubt that on their own, any of these would be particularly dangerous or destabilizing, the cumulative effects of having all three appear over the space of a few generations, and counter-intuitiveness of treating Botfly larvae could cause some serious problems, and seems like the most Immediate threat, even if in the long run Chagas and River Blindness are much, much more devastating economically.

So what say you AH.com? How could this effect European and Global development?

 

[stewacide]

I think syphilis was supposed to have begun in the New World and came over post-Columbus, and before modern medicine it was a huge irritant if not a major killer.

 

[NothingNow]

I think syphilis was supposed to have begun in the New World and came over post-Columbus, and before modern medicine it was a huge irritant if not a major killer.

Yeah, Syphilis, or one strain of it was probably the only disease to make the run from the New World to europe IOTL.

 

[mowque]

So, yeah, What would the effects of a few Parasitic diseases (which the new World is lousy with) making their way over to Europe be? I'm talking of things like Chagas, Human Botflies, and River Blindness each making their way to europe, and finding environments and hosts.

Aren't these very tropical type parasites? Meaning, Europe isn't a good place for them.

 

[NothingNow]

Aren't these very tropical type parasites? Meaning, Europe isn't a good place for them.

Chagas is normally transmitted by Assassin bugs (when consuming blood,) so fleas might be able to transmit it, and it's found at altitude as well, so it could probably take european conditions, and Bot flies range from Mexico to northern Argentina and Chile, so the Mediterranean probably isn't out of the question for them. River Blindness is normally transmitted by Simulium Black flies, in the same way Malaria or Chagas is, so again, it isn't out of the question for europe as well.

 

[The Ubbergeek]

Actually, Europe knew malaria for a long, long while, like italian marshes and swamps...