A notable interaction between European settlers and indigenous peoples throughout history is spreading diseases native people have no immunity to. Why was the spread of indigenous diseases to European settlers much less widespread/well known?

Question

A notable interaction between European settlers and indigenous peoples throughout history is spreading diseases native people have no immunity to. Why was the spread of indigenous diseases to European settlers much less widespread/well known?

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Answer 1

Pretty much all of the deadliest pathogens we come into contact with come from animal reservoirs and made the jump to humans. this kind of transition from animal to human is very rare and unlikely. In Afro-Eurasia there were lots of domesticated animals which spent a lot of time close to humans, giving greater chances of transmission to humans. The Americas didn’t have large scale animal agriculture and thus had fewer deadly diseases spread from animals (and thus fewer to transmit to the European population they came into contact with).