EPIDEMIOLOGIST TRANSITION IN TIERRA DEL FUEGO: INDIRECT CONTACT AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES BETWEEN 1520 AND 18

Abstract

Authors as Ramenofsky (1987) speculate on the possibility that infectious diseases acted in a discreet way in North America during a so called initial period of Indirect Contact. Borrero (2001), indicates that the importance of defi ning the Indirect Contact is that historical registers that we have, are describing transformed societies, beyond the limits of the colonization. For that reason, the size of previous populations from the fi rst stories of Gusinde and others are uncertain. Is important to describe, the facts include in the Indirect Contact in Southern Patagon to be able to evaluate its incidence on the Biology of the native human groups. We try to offer a probable frame on the dispersed infectious diseases in Tierra del Fuego during the Indirect Contact. Through the use of historical compilations on the diseases introduced in America and the description of the Indirect Contact, and considering of the environmental conditions of Tierra del Fuego, we constructed a list of infectious diseases that probably were introduced within the archipelago during the analyzed period. This work is included in a project whose aim is to analyze the dispersion of diseases in Southern Patagonia