Matiosi

The third ward in the Covenant building was wholly dedicated to arcane healing, and was ordinarily a hive of activity, with wizards and doctors and nurses moving about and fussing over something or another. The exception was when a matiosi patient was in the ward and isolated; their treatment was always a priority. Renton stepped through the doorway and frowned; the audience for today's treatment was much larger than the last time, and they were packed a little too close for comfort.
"Has medicine become a spectator sport? Come now. Some of you need to leave so that we don't turn the Healer's Covenant into a circus. Go on." The nurse had a firm tone. "I signed on twelve observers and there are at least twenty of you. Clear out."
That they did, but not without grumbles. Front-row seats to a display of delicate magecraft were a rare commodity. Renton stepped over to the lone bed in the ward, where a matiosi patient (this one an older woman) was taking short, shallow breaths.
"It may be common knowledge that matiosi can be treated with magic, but I assume that you're here to learn exactly how it's done. All of you are magic-users?" A few shakes of the head. "About two thirds of you. That's fine, this will be instructive either way. But for the wizards in this audience, I need you to watch closely."
The nurse bent over the woman and placed two hands on opposite sides of her chest, on either side of her heart. "The first step is clairvoyance. Now, we already know that we have a matiosi victim in this bed, but observe my technique carefully." Renton closed his eyes and began to concentrate, flowing from one hand to the other. The mages in the audience were at rapt attention; they could sense the flow of power. "Be *careful*. You cannot flow power to the point where it impacts or damages the tissues. Patients have died to overzealous magic use. Take it carefully, and open your eye of magic."
Renton straightened and turned to the audience. "Cast the flow carefully and your magecraft will tell you a story. In this case, the story is of the arteries of the heart being riddled with holes; they have not burst yet, but mage-power flows through the walls of the vessel as if they were nothing. This is the telling sign of matiosi infection."
One of the wizards raised her hand. "Is there no analogue to this that we could discover ourselves, without having to work on a live patient?"
The nurse shook his head. "None. This is why I limit my audiences. Now, before we apply treatment, I need each magic-user here who is confident of their skill to do as I have just done. As long as you are careful and don't apply a warmage's bluntness to the task, you will learn matiosi's magical signature for yourself."

Transmission & Vectors

The transmission vector of Matiosi is unknown to Etoile; it is not ordinarily transmitted from person to person, that much is clear. Conjecture regarding its provenance stem from certain foodstuffs, interaction with animals, and perhaps from a tainted water supply. There have not been enough quickly identified cases of Matiosi to definitively answer the question of its origin.
The blood of victims is dangerous, however, and care must be taken to not accidentally ingest an infected person's blood. This is principally a concern of medicinal doctors and nurses, and not that of the general public.

Causes

Matiosi is caused by some type of putrefaction agent; the blood of infected victims has been experimentally verified to rot cattle hearts at a rapid pace. However the putrefaction agent is introduced (still a subject of research), it roots in the bodies of victims and poisons their blood.

Symptoms

Matiosi presents as a general pain of the chest and trunk. This is the most insidious part of the disease, as 'chest pain' is possibly the most common symptom of all human afflictions. If not correctly diagnosed in time, half to two thirds of matiosi victims have heart attacks after about three weeks, and pass, after vomiting blood. Careful inspections of the victims have noted that the blood vessels around their hearts are severely damaged; the academic consensus is that the disease causes heart attacks by destroying the coronary arteries.

Treatment

If correctly diagnosed, matiosi victims may be treated with a category of drugs named 'thinners' - these drugs induce a stupor, slowing the heart beat and causing circulation to move at a crawl. This is ordinarily extremely dangerous for a healthy person, as extended time on thinners can cause the death of tissues in the extremity, similar to gangrene - however, this is the only viable standard treatment for victims of matiosi. The danger of the treatment regimen requires a near certainty of the matiosi diagnosis.
The first generation of mage-healers have developed an emergency treatment that can stabilize victims near-death, with the precise application of a strengthening magic to the blood vessels around their heart, in order to prevent their rupture. This is an extremely demanding application of magecraft that only a few select wizards are capable of casting, after extensive training; there are less than ten qualified mage-healers in all of Etoile, though their training is a state priority.

Prognosis

Untreated, half to two-thirds of matiosi infections result in death. Sufficient treatment early in the disease's progress result in nearly a one hundred percent cure rate and healthy outcomes. Late treatment by mundane means is supportive in nature and rarely effective, but research into magic-based treatment has resulted in a far better outcome for even the patients closest to death. Nearly half of dying patients can survive matiosi when under rotating shifts of mage-healing.
Late treatment itself is becoming far rarer, due to effective early detection of a matiosi case though the phenomenon of mage-clairvoyance. Wizards who are training as healers learn to channel their magic through a medium in order to generate a 'mind's eye' vision of the medium itself, a very recent development in the application of healing magic. When applied to mundane substances, a wizard can identify structural flaws and defects. When applied to the human body, a wizard can visualize the living body in a way no cadaver could hope to imitate; a deep understanding of the flow of humours and vitae as well as the health of the human organs. This development is currently revolutionizing common medicine, and specifically allows for an early differential diagnosis of matiosi, impossible with only mundane means.

Cultural Reception

Matiosi has long been known as the 'silent' killer - a rare disease that induces paranoia in all that experience temporary chest pain. While cases are rare, they have acquired notoriety; the tales of average folk simply dropping dead in the street have resulted in superstitious ephemera, passed down as 'lore'. Even now, under the auspice of modern Etoilean medicine, matiosi's root cause is a mystery.
What has changed is the advent of magic. The second application of magic was to healing (the first naturally being war), and magically-aided medicine is an active and highly funded field of research. The proper differential diagnosis of matiosi was the first true advancement in medicine attributed solely to magic, a discovery breathlessly reported on in the journals of Etoile and a fact thrown about endlessly during philosophical debates about magic's place in society. This 'vanquishing' of a disease is a first in Etoilean history, and even those naturally suspicious of magic are unable to deny its effectiveness in this application.

Origin

Natural

Cycle

Short-term

Rarity

Rare