You are on page 1of 12

1/18/2018 Aztecs were wiped out by horror ‘eye-bleeding’ disease that killed 15million in just five years, scientists

ve years, scientists reveal

Sign in

UK Edition Search

All News UK News World News Politics Opinion Health News

SWEEPING DEATH Aztecs MOST POPULAR

were wiped out by horror ‘eye-


bleeding’ disease that killed
15million in just ve years,
scientists reveal
Experts say an epidemic called cocoliztli was to
blame after nding DNA evidence on the teeth of SNAP, CRACKLE, POP Woman sufferin
long-dead victims coughs so hard she breaks her RIB

By Nicola Stow
16th January 2018, 11:34 am Updated: 16th January 2018, 3:30 pm

18
  COMMENTS

THE Aztecs were wiped out by a horror disease that caused them to
bleed from the eyes, mouth and nose, experts have revealed.

Scientists say as many as 15 million people - an estimated 80 per cent


of  population - were killed when an epidemic known as cocoliztli PURE EVIL Couple who raped daughte
swept Mexico's Aztec nation in 1545. every other day told cops 'better us tha
some maniac'

THE SUN, A NEWS UK COMPANY

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5351735/aztecs-were-wiped-out-by-horror-eye-bleeding-disease-that-killed-15million-in-just-five-years-scientists-reveal/ 1/12
1/18/2018 Aztecs were wiped out by horror ‘eye-bleeding’ disease that killed 15million in just five years, scientists reveal

NICE TO SEA YOU Danniella Westbroo


goes topless and uses bikini top as a
bandana

CHAR CHAR CHAR Brendan Cole hints


GETTY - CONTRIBUTOR 7 marriage stopped him romancing Char
Hawkins
The Pyramid of the Sun dominates Mexico city from the east side
of the Avenue of the Dead

The word means “pestilence” in the Aztec Nahuatl language.

Its cause, however, has been in question for nearly 500 years.

On Monday, scientists swept aside smallpox, measles, mumps, and


influenza as likely suspects, fingering a typhoid-like “enteric fever” for
which they found DNA evidence on the teeth of long-dead victims, BREAKING
reports news.com.au.
FACING JAIL Parents of 'house of horr
Ashild Vagene, of the University of Tuebingen in Germany, said: “The plead not guilty to imprisoning their 13
1545-50 cocoliztli was one of many epidemics to affect Mexico after
the arrival of Europeans, but was specifically the second of three
epidemics that were most devastating and led to the largest number of
human losses.

PICTURE EXCLUSIVE
NEW ME! Ferne McCann debuts new lo
after it's revealed her baby visited her ja
ex

GETTY - CONTRIBUTOR 7

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5351735/aztecs-were-wiped-out-by-horror-eye-bleeding-disease-that-killed-15million-in-just-five-years-scientists-reveal/ 2/12
1/18/2018 Aztecs were wiped out by horror ‘eye-bleeding’ disease that killed 15million in just five years, scientists reveal

Scientists say the Aztecs were killed off by a horror epidemic


known as cocoliztli

BRIDE EYED TERROR Hen party freak o


after seeing something VERY spooky i
group photo

AP2004 7
These two skeletons were found in excavations at Ecatepec in WHOOPS! Corrie's Rob Mallard accide
2004 confirms massive spoiler live on This
Morning

DIY SOS! Catherine Tyldesley son Alfie


decorates home with permanent marke

EXCLUSIVE
RAIN FORECAST EastEnders troublem
Rainie Cross returns to Albert Square
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5351735/aztecs-were-wiped-out-by-horror-eye-bleeding-disease-that-killed-15million-in-just-five-years-scientists-reveal/ 3/12
1/18/2018 Aztecs were wiped out by horror ‘eye-bleeding’ disease that killed 15million in just five years, scientists reveal

TIMES NEWSPAPERS LTD 7


The disease caused victims to bleed profusely from the eyes, nose
and mouth

“The cause of this epidemic has been debated for over a century by
historians and now we are able to provide direct evidence through the
use of ancient DNA to contribute to a longstanding historical question."

Vagene co-authored a study published in the science journal Nature


Ecology & Evolution.

The cocoliztli outbreak is considered one of the deadliest epidemics in


human history, approaching the “Black Death” bubonic plague that
felled some 25 million people in western Europe in the 14th century —
about half the regional population.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5351735/aztecs-were-wiped-out-by-horror-eye-bleeding-disease-that-killed-15million-in-just-five-years-scientists-reveal/ 4/12
1/18/2018 Aztecs were wiped out by horror ‘eye-bleeding’ disease that killed 15million in just five years, scientists reveal

Analysing DNA extracted from 29 skeletons buried in a cocoliztli


cemetery, scientists found traces of the salmonella enterica bacterium,
of the Paratyphi C variety.

OTBALL SPORT TV & SHOWBIZ NEWS FABULOUS MONEY MOTORS TRAVEL TECH DEAR DEIDRE

BETTMANN - CORBIS 7
Death usually followed within days

GETTY - CONTRIBUTOR 7
The 1545-50 cocoliztli was one of many epidemics to affect
Mexico after the arrival of Europeans, scientists say

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5351735/aztecs-were-wiped-out-by-horror-eye-bleeding-disease-that-killed-15million-in-just-five-years-scientists-reveal/ 5/12
1/18/2018 Aztecs were wiped out by horror ‘eye-bleeding’ disease that killed 15million in just five years, scientists reveal

By continuing to use the site, you agree to the use of cookies. You can change this and find out Close
more by following this link

AP:ASSOCIATED PRESS 7
These sculptures were unearthed by investigators in a tunnel
sealed 2000 years ago at the Teotihuacan archaeological site in
Mexico in 2013

Hundreds of human skulls in an Aztec shrine in Mexico city

KILLER DISEASE What is cocoliztli?

The cocoliztli epidemic – Although the cause for the


attributed to one or two epidemic remains
illnesses collectively - unknown, theories suggest
caused millions of deaths in it could have been a deadly
the New Spain territory of viral haemorrhagic fever
Mexico in the 16th century. exacerbated by the worst
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5351735/aztecs-were-wiped-out-by-horror-eye-bleeding-disease-that-killed-15million-in-just-five-years-scientists-reveal/ 6/12
1/18/2018 Aztecs were wiped out by horror ‘eye-bleeding’ disease that killed 15million in just five years, scientists reveal

droughts to hit the region in symptoms included high


500 years. fever, severe headache,
vertigo, black tongue, dark
Heavy downpours that urine, dysentery, severe
followed the drought saw an abdominal pain, head and
increase in populations of neck nodules, jaundice and
the Vesper mouse – a profuse bleeding from the
carrier of haemorrhagic nose, eyes, and mouth.
fever.
Death frequently occurred
According to physician in 3 to 4 days.
Francisco Hernandez,

MOST READ IN NEWS

PURE EVIL Couple FACING JAIL MYSTERY SEX BE


who raped Parents of 'house FAREWELL Why did raped
daughter every of horrors' plead 'house of horrors’ goats t
other day told cops not guilty to parents say shocki
'better us than imprisoning their goodbye hours attack
some maniac' 13 kids before kids'
rescue?

It is known to cause enteric fever, of which typhoid is an example.

The Mexican subtype rarely causes human infection today.

Many salmonella strains spread via infected food or water, and may
have travelled to Mexico with domesticated animals brought by the
Spanish, the research team said.

We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news
team? Email us at tips@the-sun.co.uk or call 0207 782 4368. We pay
for videos too. Click here to upload yours.

COMMENTS
Sign in 18 comments

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5351735/aztecs-were-wiped-out-by-horror-eye-bleeding-disease-that-killed-15million-in-just-five-years-scientists-reveal/ 7/12
1/18/2018 Aztecs were wiped out by horror ‘eye-bleeding’ disease that killed 15million in just five years, scientists reveal

+ Follow Share Post comment as...

Newest | Oldest | Top Comments

1 day ago
Ralph Cramden

Sure, DNA from 15 year old rape kits is too degraded to test but bacterial
DNA from the surface of teeth buried for 500 years in hot sand is ok. Yeah,
we're all idiots. Oswald was the lone assassin too.

LIKE REPLY

1 day ago
Ron Jones

Jakeyb2018.....be specific, your comment is vague.  Oh, I see....just name-


calling as usual.

LIKE REPLY

1 day ago
Ron Jones

Jakey.....yes, 'odd'.... meaning unusual in the sense that have insight where
others just listen to propaganda.

And you weren't specific so your comment is vague....just typical name-


calling as usual.

LIKE REPLY

2 days ago
Jakeyb2018 B

Definitely started by aliens ɥ

LIKE REPLY

2 days ago
Brooks Mick

First they blame an Ebola-like virus, and then switch to a typhoid-like


bacteria. Seems both are just theories.

LIKE REPLY

2 days ago
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5351735/aztecs-were-wiped-out-by-horror-eye-bleeding-disease-that-killed-15million-in-just-five-years-scientists-reveal/ 8/12
1/18/2018 Aztecs were wiped out by horror ‘eye-bleeding’ disease that killed 15million in just five years, scientists reveal
days ago
Jimmy not that JImmy

@Brooks Mick More funding is needed.  

LIKE REPLY

1 day ago
max williams

@Brooks Mick liquid Silver that I get from crsupplements will take
care of those nasty viruses and bacteria.  Any colloidal silver
should do the same.

LIKE REPLY

2 days ago
Heather Johnson

Will we be getting a vaccine for this??

LIKE REPLY

2 days ago
Attila Shrugs

Ex. 23:28 And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the
Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee.

The hornets were plagues.  They swept the New World often before the
Europeans even arrived to their latest conquest.  The Inca empire was
conquered by less than 100 Spanish Conquistadors.  How?  
Smallpox had blazed its way up the Amazon from Portuguese contacts on
the Atlantic coast of what is now Brazil.  It arrived in the Andes in the Inca
lands and killed the Emperor.  (“The Inca” meant the emperor, it wasn’t the
name of the people or the empire.) 
Pizarro and his men, war horses and fierce dogs arrived just as a civil war
was raging between two claimants to the throne. He played one of the
other and all the time the small pox and other diseases were ravaging the
population.  And thus Pizarro conquered.  

Before that Cortez marched to Tenochtitlan (Mexico City) with his


Conquistadors and an army of thousands of Indians who were tired of the
Aztecs demanding sacrifices.  The Aztecs practiced human sacrifice on an
industrial scale.  
Cortez left a lieutenant in charge at the capital and returned to Vera Cruz to
meet a ship sent by the governor of Hispaniola to arrest him for exceeding
the parameters of his mission, (but really for the envy to claim what Cortez
won for himself).  While he was back on the Gulf of Mexico the Mexicans
rose up and killed many of the Spanish.   Cortez turned the men sent to
arrest him into allies and together marched back to Tenochtitlan.  But their
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5351735/aztecs-were-wiped-out-by-horror-eye-bleeding-disease-that-killed-15million-in-just-five-years-scientists-reveal/ 9/12
1/18/2018 Aztecs were wiped out by horror ‘eye-bleeding’ disease that killed 15million in just five years, scientists reveal

ally had preceded them!  Smallpox had broken out and spread like fire
among the Aztecs.  

The Pilgrims had believed they arrived in an area of meadows with only
small settlements of Indians.  They did not know until later that a plague
had just preceded them.  They ate food they did not plant.  And they
planted pot land they did not clear.  

Deut. 6: 10 “So it shall be, when the Lord your God brings you into the land
of which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give
you large and beautiful cities which you did not build, 11 houses full of all
good things, which you did not fill, hewn-out wells which you did not dig,

vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant—when you have eaten
and are full—

1 LIKE REPLY

2 days ago
Ron Jones

'They' would like to blame it on Trump...like they blame all white men. 
Trump is strong and can take it. 

Europeans did not know they were spreading diseases...some would have
us believe otherwise, but they are wrong.

3 LIKE REPLY

2 days ago
Jakeyb2018 B

You are a very odd man. #justsaying

LIKE REPLY

3 days ago
Rich Ramsey

Good. Fewer of their diseased, violent, illiterate, unskilled progeny to show


up in the U.S. as illegal aliens

1 LIKE REPLY

2 days ago
Jakeyb2018 B

Awww has someone that can’t speak English, has no people skills
and underprivileged, taken your job.....? You sound like a scared
little r@cist man, everytime you comment. You are a loser - #fact
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5351735/aztecs-were-wiped-out-by-horror-eye-bleeding-disease-that-killed-15million-in-just-five-years-scientists-rev… 10/12
1/18/2018 Aztecs were wiped out by horror ‘eye-bleeding’ disease that killed 15million in just five years, scientists reveal
little r@cist man, everytime you comment. You are a loser #fact

LIKE REPLY

3 days ago
Jack Bishop

Another "Settle Science" project?

3 LIKE REPLY

3 days ago
Seven Rivers

What a strange coincidence, they suddenly unearth skeletons containing a


disease that they claim wiped out the Aztecs...and then BOOM....suddenly
it shows up in Africa killing people.
Wow...will wonders never cease.

5 LIKE REPLY

3 days ago
Vee Kay

@Seven Rivers And the "white man" is to "blame" for both... 


Amazed they can't blame it on Trump...

2 LIKE REPLY

2 days ago
Attila Shrugs

@Seven Rivers What are you talking about?  Typhus is NOT newly
emergent in Africa.  The new disease du jour is Bubonic Plague.  

LIKE REPLY

2 days ago
Attila Shrugs

@Seven Rivers I cannot abide the snide tone that racialists like you
take.  You  glibly imply, that someone has deliberately infected
Africans with this disease.  
WRONG.  
In Madagascar and east African areas on the coast BUBONIC
plague has been spreading. Not, typhus!  No conspiracy here.  

1 LIKE REPLY

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5351735/aztecs-were-wiped-out-by-horror-eye-bleeding-disease-that-killed-15million-in-just-five-years-scientists-reveal/ 11/12
1/18/2018 Aztecs were wiped out by horror ‘eye-bleeding’ disease that killed 15million in just five years, scientists reveal

FOLLOW THE SUN SERVICES

Sign Up To The Sun Terms and Conditions Editorial Complaints

Clari cations and Corrections News Licensing Advertising

Contact Us Commissioning Terms Help Hub Topic A-Z

Sell Your Story

©News Group Newspapers Limited in England No. 679215 Registered office: 1 London
Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF. "The Sun", "Sun", "Sun Online" are registered trademarks
or trade names of News Group Newspapers Limited. This service is provided on News
Group Newspapers' Limited's Standard Terms and Conditions in accordance with our
Privacy & Cookie Policy. To inquire about a licence to reproduce material, visit our
Syndication site. View our online Press Pack. For other inquiries, Contact Us. To see all
content on The Sun, please use the Site Map. The Sun website is regulated by the
Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO)

Our journalists strive for accuracy but on occasion we make mistakes. For further details
of our complaints policy and to make a complaint please click here..

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5351735/aztecs-were-wiped-out-by-horror-eye-bleeding-disease-that-killed-15million-in-just-five-years-scientists-rev… 12/12

You might also like