Yellow Blood Plague

A fast-spreading, fast-killing disease that renders the blood yellowish as its victims cannot catch their breath and die painfully. It appeared in the Rossan-Valid Dukedom a few years after the region suffered terrible monster invasions. It almost spread into the rest of the Eastern Realms.

Transmission & Vectors

Yellow Blood can be transmitted through close contact with infected people through saliva, sputters, and other respiratory secretions. Even droplets exhaled by breathing or speaking are enough for the disease to travel. The airways such as the mouth and the nose are the primary way for the virus to enter the body. However open wounds are another candidate for infection. Yellow Blood can survive in blood, and spreads and survives longer in the bloodstream. Thus, battles and monster-related injuries increase the chances of getting infected.

Causes

Yellow Blood is the name of the condition that results from the infection by a viral agent whose name is known only by Franc Ecart, an Apostolites noble who named it for his personal researches. The presence of the virus in the body results in red blood cells losing their ability to collect dioxygen. The Virus binds itself to the iron of the red blood cell and prevents it from getting oxygen where it should be able to. As a result, the afflicted has reduced efficiency in breathing as less oxygen reaches his organs.

Symptoms

The first symptoms are close to those of iron deficiency anemia, there is tiredness, shortness of breath and muscle cramps. Telling aspects of an infectee include a fever, inflamation of the throat, and short line-like rashes around the infection points if it came from a wound.

Treatment

Outside of treatments, the virus cannot thrive for long in a healthy organism wih responsive immune systems. The body's most efficient defense mechanism is to eliminate infected red blood cells and prevent the virus to spread. A vaccine is the most efficient way to prepare the defenses by familiarizing the response cells to the virus' presence. However, with the medieval level of technologies in Orbido, such modern techniques were unlikely to occur. The genius of Franc Ecart nonetheless managed to prove an absence of infection on his test subjects and his protype vaccine managed to halt the spread of the disease with non-affected victims. Sadly, no treatment exists for infected victims who were infected for more than a day.

Prognosis

But within a few hours, the virus interacts with the rest of the red blood cells producing graver symptoms. The shortness of breath increases, dizziness settles, pain is felt in the trachea as the accelerated breathing doesn't improve the victim's conditions. Eventually, the brain also is deprived of oxygen and cerebral hypoxia can settle in periodically. At the latest stage of Yellow Blood, the victim's blood turns yellowish, hence the name and organ failures end the victim's life if asphixia and brain damage didn't finish the job first.

Sequela

Recovery is possible since the agents of the Yellow Plague affect the red blood cells and not the organs themselves. Long term damage is only done if organs have been deprived of oxygen for too long a period. The most severe sequelas are those affecing the brain, with cerebral hypoxia being a common occurence in the gravest cases.

Prevention

The virus prefers hot damp climates. Leaving the household dry and protecting the airways is a good way to secure one's home. Socially, avoiding close proximity is very encouraged as well as maintaining hygiene. Politically, it is recommended to stop all conflicts that may result in either side catching the sickness and bringing it home.

Type

Viral