page_title: 1510 influenza pandemic
section_title: The Americas
hierarchical_section_title: 1510 influenza pandemic / The Americas
caption_attribution_description: English: Nautical chart of Hispaniola and Puerto Rico. Ink and watercolor with pictorial relief. Français&#160;: Carte nautique des îles d'hispaniola et Porto Rico. Encre et aquarelle.
context_page_description: In 1510, an acute respiratory disease emerged in Asia before spreading through North Africa and Europe during the first chronicled, inter-regional flu pandemic generally recognized by medical historians and epidemiologists. Influenza-like illnesses had been documented in Europe since at least Charlemagne, with 1357's outbreak the first to be called influenza, but the 1510 flu pandemic is the first to be pathologically described following communication advances brought about by the printing press. Flu became more widely referred to as coqueluche and coccolucio in France and Sicily during this pandemic, variations of which became the most popular names for flu in early modern Europe. The pandemic caused significant disruption in government, church, and society with near-universal infection and a mortality rate of around 1%.
context_section_description: There are no records of influenza affecting the New World in 1510, even though numerous other European powers like France, England, and Portugal were sending their first fleets of ships to the New World after Spain. Influenza had previously afflicted the Isle of Santo Domingo (now Hispaniola) in 1493. Amerindian populations sharp decline due to Spanish-imported diseases in these 1490s and early 1500s is however documented, most notably due to smallpox.
caption: Influenza previously attacked the Island of Santo Domingo in 1493 with severe consequences.
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS Windows", "Image DateTime": "2009:07:14 15:08:07", "Image ExifOffset": "164", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "302", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6970", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "8594", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "6055"}