In1545 CE , a deep malady crashed through Mexico , causing one of the biggest epidemics of human history . Within just five age , up to 15 million the great unwashed – about 80 percent of the universe   – died a gory death after suffering from bleeding of the eyes , nose , and mouth .

Some 550 days on , a team of German scientists has struck upon a potential perpetrator behind the so - call " cocoliztli " ( entail pest in the Aztec language ) epidemic : we ’re looking at you , Salmonella . Their study about this puzzle pathogen is published inNature Ecology and Evolution ,

The cocoliztli epidemic started in Mexico after Spanish coloniser came into link with the aboriginal universe . Since   the aboriginal people had not get immunity to many of the " Old World " disease , the disease spread like wildfire and managed to wipe out an estimated 80 percent of the universe .

historiographer had antecedently postured that the cocoliztli   epidemic could have been triggered by one of the many other diseases the Europeans bring across the Atlantic , such as variola major , measles , or typhus . Some have even suggestedit could have been an Ebola - comparable virus . However , it ’s especially toilsome for scientists to identify virus from the past , as their symptoms and transmitted makeup can change significantly over the one C .

Using a new method of pathogen designation , researchers have now reckon for DNA from the tooth of 29 disease victims buried at a memorial park in Teposcolula - Yucundaa , Mexico . This analysis show grounds of theSalmonella entericabacterium of the Paratyphi C variety , an infectious bacteria that causes high fever , rashes , spartan head ache , and other enteric fever - like symptoms . That mean that this study is also the very first time   that scientists have found molecular evidence for this microbial infection by analyze old material from the New World .

" This new approach allows us to examine skeletons in broad - based investigating for all pathogens that may have been present in them , " Johannes Krause , director of the Department of Archaeogenetics and professor at the University of Tübingen in Germany , explained ina statement .

This is by no means a closed case , the researchers yield , as the presence of Paratyphi C in a few dozen skeleton does n’t necessarily mean that 15 million people died from it . Furthermore , this diagnosis does n’t quite explain the dire haemorrhage that many sources document . Nevertheless , their inquiry has proven to entertain some real potential for unraveling the secrets of retiring epidemics in account .

" This is a meaning betterment in the method we have to search on retiring disease . We can now match the presence of numerous infectious organisms in archeological stuff , ” added Kirsten Bos of the Max Planck Institute . “ This is especially relevant in cases where the cause of a disease was antecedently obscure . "