White Cough

Symptoms

The infection begins with a small cough. Over time it becomes more intense, at the height of the disease the victim must cough almost continuously.
After a day or two, the skin of the infected begins to pale. This stops after the disease is gone, then the ski returns to its normal color. Unlike the cough, the paler skin does not provide any real downside, safe for those living in areas of extreme sunlight. There, the new paleness can quickly lead to sunburns.

Treatment

Normally an infected individual should rest for the duration of the disease and drink warm water or tea. If the disease coincides with some other, harsher disease, a priest or mage may be called to purge the disease from the body, as it is usually easily healed. But as it is little nothing more than an inconvenience and the price for magical healing is quite high this option is rarely ever used.

Prevention

A way to prevent the sudden appearance of the White Cough has yet to be found. Attempts have been made to separate the old inhabitants of a village, but when one somehow develops it, the others follow suit relatively quickly without having been near them. Even when the diseased was locked into a cell, only given food by those not affected, the others would spontaneously develop it.

Epidemiology

The white cough follows no understandable pattern, appearing randomly on older people. Other older people near them tend to be affected by the cough, but no-one else normally runs the risk of being infected. The only exception is those already weakened by disease or general frailness.
Normal, healthy individuals of good health are not affected.

Cultural Reception

Despite the constant coughing the disease mostly passes without causing any lasting damage. As it is only a minor inconvenience for a week at most, victims are not treated differently to when they are healthy. The exception is other old people, who may seek to distance themselves from the sick one, as they are the only ones normally affected by it.

Type

Bacterial

Origin

Natural

Cycle

Short-term

Rarity

Rare