Epidemic

Nav: The World
Geography | Biology | Civilization | Epidemic

So what do we know about the epidemic that devastated civilization on Hu?

1. In the 1400s, an epidemic known as “the choke” emerged on Hu.
2. The choke causes a hard ring to grow in the host’s windpipe, slowly strangling its victims over ten to twenty years.
3. The disease is highly contagious and following its initial outbreak, it spread to all corners of the world, causing civilizations to collapse.
4. The choke is a fungal infection, transmitted via spores, which can remain airborne for hours.
5. The choke is a zoonotic disease, and is also carried by domesticated bonobos (in a far milder form).
6. The disease progresses quicker in warm and wet climates, and slower in cold or dry climates.
7. There is no known cure, but there are treatments that slow or reverse its progress.
8. Newborn babies are immune to the choke for their first four weeks or so. 

What are the symptoms?

1. For the first year of infection there are no obvious symptoms apart from a sore throat.
2. From the second year onwards, the host develops a hacking cough – expelling clouds of infectious spores
3. Three or four years after infection, it becomes visible from the outside as a thickened ridge of bruised flesh that forms a collar-like band around the neck.
4. After six to eight years, the host develops a constant wheeze.
5. Towards the end, that wheeze turns into a droning whistle.

How have people learned to adapt?
Different cultures around the world have discovered different ways of dealing with the the epidemic over the last 500 years.

1. Avoidance – stay away from infected people and keep to yourself!
2. Segregation – organised avoidance, splitting regions into safe zones and wild zones.
3. Facemasks – the disease is spread by coughing and breathing in spores, so wearing a facemask can reduce the risk of it spread.
4. Filtration – an airtight helmet, with an air-supply drawn through a chemical filter mix which kills the spores.
5. Early diagnosis – the disease is not infectious during the first year, but signs of its presence can be detected and the infected can be identified (and potentially banished).
6. Newborn loophole – babies are immune for their first month, so sending a newborn from a wild zone to a safe zone means it can grow up with less chance of infection.
7. Tracheotomy – cutting into a patient’s throat, and inserting a tube below the choke collar can allow them to keep breathing, but is risky in a world without antibiotics.
8. Collar shaving – inserting a blade into a patient’s throat (like a sword swallower) and rotating it to shave the growth to undo some of the disease’s progress.
9. Nebulized Potions – various acerbic concoctions, breathed in as a mist, which slow the growth or break it down (with associated side effects).
10. Bonobo saliva – the disease jumped from domesticated bonobos to humans. In bonobos a compound in their saliva breaks down the choke’s growth, so it never progresses far enough to be life-threatening – they can cough up chunks. By harvesting bonobo saliva, people are able to treat the choke.