Disease in America; From the Colonies to Today.

Smallpox was a serious threat during the early colonial America. It was the main disease that wiped out the majority of the Native Americans and also to Anglo American settlers. It was severely contagious and more than 30% were destined to die. Cotton Mather was a Puritan leader who promoted the new method used by the African and Asiatics used too prevent and abate the dangers of the Small-Pox, inoculation. This method was to infect the individual through a cut with a relatively mild case of smallpox which was variola, in order to build a small infection so that the body could easily recover which will provide an immunity. This method was highly successful.  Out of 241 people who did receive inoculation only 6 died but out of the 6000 people who were not inoculated only 15% lived (900 people).

Most diseases that exist today in our country have medicine to treat them and vaccines. Dangerous diseases that were just as serious as smallpox back in the Colonial American days, we still encounter today. Ebola is a new similar disease we are currently dealing with and it’s growing faster than the ability of health centers to handle them. The  USA has the capability of treating and curing civilians that have caught Ebola because we have the the political and economic  power to gather scientists to create vaccines for it.  This is  just like Cotton Mather because he was a very well know Puritan leader that because of his power he gathered the knowledge of inoculations and saved thousands of lives in his colony.

Source of Information: Text Book AMERICAN VISION page 43