Smallpox, inoculation and vaccination in New Spain

His symptoms included the onset of a slight rash that quickly evolved into moderately sized pustules with pus, which when burst caused pain. These had an invasive faculty so violent that they could cause blindness, in addition to patients experiencing fever, headache and being in a state of prostration if the disease affected them too much.

In 1520, among the population that landed with Pánfilo Narváez and his crew was Francisco Eguia, a slave sick with smallpox. This disease became crucial for the conquest of the territory since it spread rapidly among the indigenous people due to a series of factors such as no previous exposure to the virus.

The smallpox epidemic of 1797 was one of the most outstanding because it managed to enter the capital of the viceroyalty. The population feared this disease mainly because of the symptoms that manifested.


This epidemic wreaked great havoc on the lives of those people. For example, the viceroy, the Marquis of Branciforte, was informed that the priest of the parish of San Pablo recorded the death of 93 people from smallpox, whose bodies were buried in two different places, while another 22 people had contracted the disease. So restrictive measures such as quarantines and suspension of economic and social activities were implemented.

Parishes were the main mechanism for organizing and attending to the epidemic. For example, the parish of San Miguel, in addition to reporting the daily death of children and adults, notified the death and burial of a maiden in its vicinity at the end of September 1797. Parishes were also one of the usual sites where victims were buried.

Public awareness of the effects of the disease fueled fear. In 1797, the exposed corpse of a child caused intense panic in the face of a contagion. For this reason, the bodies of the deceased were transported with their faces covered and their hands with gloves in order not to reveal the disease for which they perished, as a letter addressed to the viceroy in August 1797 allows us to know.

To combat the pandemic, the viceregal government and the ecclesiastical authorities joined forces with sides, agreements and norms. The archbishop of Mexico constantly reported on the measures taken to deal with the epidemic and its ravages. One of them is noted in the letter that the archbishop sent to the viceroy in mid-November 1797 to inform that the Board of Charity sought to avoid the sale and pawning of clothes used by the sick.

Inoculation managed to decrease deaths and the spread of smallpox. In the main barracks of the capital an inoculation house was established as a report of September and October 1797 allows to know. By October 21, in addition to 1,908 sick and 98 dead, there were 728 inoculated distributed in the 8 barracks of the capital. But the inoculation had a drawback: being prepared with blood and pus, without optimal conservation conditions it spoiled, so infections developed and in some places favored the transmission of syphilis.

The official origin of the vaccine is attributed to Edwar Jenner, who perfected the technique of variolization or inoculation to properly be considered as a vaccine. This consisted of pricking the skin with a small dose of the liquid of a lymph caused by the vaccination of an anterior arm, from which the arm-to-arm method emerged. Some time later, from the tragic death of the daughter of King Carlos IV, he was vaccinated in all the territories of the empire through "The royal philanthropic expedition of the vaccine" by Francisco Javier de Balmis.

A further example of the efficiency-oriented rationality and commitment of the philanthropic expedition can be seen in the lists of vaccinated. In them, relevant information of the beneficiary population was recorded. This document of 1803 is a fragment of the vaccination list of infants, you can see the month, day, street, number of attended, some names and lineage in certain cases, as well as other observations. Thus, a precedent was established in vaccination reports.

Another list with the information organized in the same way allows us to witness the great work that it represented to carry the vaccine through the viceregal territory. In this fragment we follow, like a kind of log, the itinerary of the expedition by recording the months elapsed and the number of vaccinated in each report. Vaccination has been central to the fight against disease over the centuries and the documentary heritage reminds us of humanity's effort to guarantee health and the care of life.