Where would the United States of America be today were it not for variola? The first military commander in chief and future first president of this incipient nation nearly lost his life - or at least came close - to the pestilential smallpox strain. Yet it was this early illness experienced by a young George Washington that helped formulate and fashion his overall military strategy as he led the various groups of volunteer militia in their fight for independence from the British. Were it not for some of these experiences, Washington may have chosen a different route and inexorably changed the course of North American history.
From the point of first contact with the Amerindians, it became quite obvious that natural immunity to variola - which was common in Europe as it spread frequently across that continent - was missing from the natives' biological and immunological makeup. This was due as well to their somewhat isolated environments. Moreover, it was recorded that variola "became more virulent in the three centuries leading up to 1800," making it even more likely that morbidity and mortality rates would be high for the Indians.
As entire Indian communities succumbed to Variola in the early epidemics, mortality stemmed not just from the pestilence itself but also from famine and thirst as the raging contagion left no one well enough to care for the ill. Furthermore, Native American healing customs may also have exacerbated the effects of variola.
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