Abstract

This paper investigates the proposed 1493 zoonotic (swine influenza) pandemic that swept through the Spanish colony at La Isabela, Hispaniola. Primary and secondary accounts of the malady describe the attributed symptoms as summarized in the work of Guerra (1988) and attempt to predict the geographic spread of the zoonosis as a series of four expanding regional stages, beginning at La Isabela and nearby Indigenous villages, moving outward along known valley pathways, engulfing northern Hispaniola, and finally transporting the infectious disease to the nearby islands of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, and the Bahama Archipelago, with the possibility of spreading to the Lesser Antilles, the eastern coast of Yucatan and Honduras, and the northern coast of South America. This proposed geographic virus dispersion model includes a series of island maps that locate selected archeological sites of known villages along with suggested travel times, providing a historical record of viral spread tracing.

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