Red Cough

The Red Cough is a highly infectious disease that spreads via droplet contamination and thins the walls of the arteries of the infected. Healthy bodies can often survive this disease that lasts for about two to four weeks with a bit of weakness, a persistent wet cough, and minor bleeding that tints the cough pink or causes nose bleeds and makes the skin more susceptible to bruising. If one's arteries are already weakened, however, the consequences are more drastic and can be fatal, from a persisting bloody cough, rectal bleeding, vomiting blood, weakness to the point of forcing someone into bedrest, making it difficult and painful to eat or drink, and the worst cases have their arteries in the throat split and they choke to death on their own blood while bleeding out.

Transmission & Vectors

The disease is a virus that spreads via droplets and blood. It is highly infectious but many young and healthy bodies show little to no traceable symptoms which speeds the transmission up because people are walking around feeling fine and trailing a deathly cloud around them in public.

Symptoms

• weakness
• headaches
• chest pain
• stomach pain
• bloody diarrhea and vomiting
• nosebleeds
• bruising

Treatment

There is no non-magical cure available and magical healing is more about stabilizing the body during the infection and helping it recover, not a removal of the infectious disease itself. In soft to medium cases it helps to stay in bed and keep strenuous movement to a minimum as well as drinking a lot, consuming a iron-rich diet, and keeping the environment soft and clean.

Prognosis

The prognosis depends on the artery health before the illness. Healthy bodies usually manage without a lot of trouble, if any symptoms are noticeable at all, but older bodies with aged arteries or bodies that are prematurely weakened by substance abuse are at risk of a fatal turn.