Spanish Flu, German Measles, etc. Why u no American Diseases?

[gooddragon1]

There's Spanish Flu and German Measles. Why don't we have an American disease?

[Blackhawk748]

There's Spanish Flu and German Measles. Why don't we have an American disease?

Because our freedom overpowers any disease

[DavidSh]

Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever
Lyme Disease

[gooddragon1]

Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever

Well that's good enough I guess.

[sktarq]

in general? because there were fewer easily domesicated animals in the New World. Thus fewer chances for animal diseases to jump to humanity.

Why the native Americans caught smallpox, measles, et all and the Europeans got syphilis. . .

That's the biggest source of human diseases. and so it leans in numbers away from America.

As for the naming. . . for a long time they were named for the places they were thought to have come from....which was usually from the point of view a particular island. Mostly because we tend to use their language on this particular board.

[Yora]

I've also heard the domesticated animals hypothesis, which I find very convincing.

[Brother Oni]

Affluenza?

I would normally put a smiley here, but the amount of crap that tried to be excused with that defence makes it a very black sense of humour.

[snowblizz]

and the Europeans got syphilis. . .

And we were classy enough to not name it American Syphilis. Just so as not to point a finger. Very considerate. (Also things that started before modern times tend not to be anmed, it's not the Russian Cholera after all, though in reality comes form India, but to England by way of Russia)

I swear though, the American Zombie flu will be thing one of these days.


And yes, America did not have as good a set of circumstances than RoW for breeding diseases what with less density and domestic animals.

[hamishspence]

And we were classy enough to not name it American Syphilis. Just so as not to point a finger. Very considerate.

I recall reading a lot of historical fiction that called it "the French pox" - maybe it was thought to come from France, for a long period? That might have been where the first big outbreak was.

[Eldan]

I recall reading a lot of historical fiction that called it "the French pox" - maybe it was thought to come from France, for a long period? That might have been where the first big outbreak was.

I remember a documentary mentioning that everyone named Syphillis after their closest enemies. The French disease, the English disease, the German disease, the Polish disease...

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Affluenza?

I would normally put a smiley here, but the amount of crap that tried to be excused with that defence makes it a very black sense of humour.

Lead poisoning might as well called the American disease at this point. Both types, in fact: the ingested one, and the one whose delivery mechanism is guns.

And yes, I wish this too could be given a smiley, but it can't.

I remember a documentary mentioning that everyone named Syphillis after their closest enemies. The French disease, the English disease, the German disease, the Polish disease...

It was mentioned in QI (probably the Europe episode?)

In the same vein, the only reason why the 1912 flu is called the Spanish Flu is because Spain, neutral in WWI, was the only major country in Europe with free press, and thus was the only one reporting on the sickness' spread.

Grey Wolf

[Vinyadan]

Montezuma's Curse? That's from the Americas.

More seriously: American trypanosomiasis.

[Xuc Xac]

Legionnaire's disease is named after the American Legion because it first appeared at one of their conventions.

[Vogie]

Affluenza?

LOL

Although one could make the case that Obesity only became an "epidemic" or reached a disease level by American Agricultural and food preparation techniques as well as the American technological leaps - that is, development and reliance on cars in the early 1900s, and the interchangeable parts pioneering by Eli Whitney in the late 1700s that led to the mechanization of many hard labor jobs. But that's more of a memetic disease rather than an "actual" one.