MALT takes a sample of material, in this case from a tooth, and compares it to 6,247 known bacterial genomes.
It bore the name cocoliztli, meaning ‘pestilence,’ and it killed between five and 15 million people in just three years .
As many plagues were at the time, it proved deadly and mysterious, burning through entire populations.
Occurring centuries before John Snow’s work on cholera gave rise to epidemiology, data on the disease’s devastation was sparse.
Nearly 500 years ago in what we now call Mexico , a disease started rippling through the population.
Red spots appeared on the skin, accompanied by wretched vomiting, bleeding from multiple orifices, and eventually, death.
Combined with an invasion from Europe and horrific droughts , it was generally not a pleasant time or place to be alive. »
