Night Hunger

The illness that turns normal people into pseudo-vampires.

Transmission & Vectors

The illness can be contracted from drinking contaminated water or the saliva of those infected.

Causes

The disease starts when an egg from the parasite enters the blood or stomach. if in the blood it hatches and the burrows into the stomach where it feeds on iron from the stomach contents and making small holes in the stomach to cause internal bleeding and consuming the blood. once it reaches adult hood generally 6-8 weeks it rapidly goes up the esophagus and burrows into the brain through the top of the mouth laying eggs in the gums of the mouth. after it has wrapped around the brain it uses spindles with small electromagnetic pulses to cause behavioral effects on the victim until it dies of anemia.

Symptoms

initially (1-4 weeks): pale skin, weakness and fatigue.
development (4-8 weeks): strong craving for iron from any source and when consumed symptoms fade for a brief time, headaches, and irritability.
Developed (8-20 weeks): constant craving for blood or another source of iron, increased aggression, sensitivity to light, increase in saliva production and habit of spitting.
the Final Days: previous symptoms no longer go away when iron is consumed and get exponentially worse each day until the host dies. often spends most of these days unconscious.

Treatment

during the initial and development stages the disease can be cured causing the host to repeatedly vomit and ingesting lots of salt. after the condition has developed there is no cure due to the brain damage and the host should be granted a swift death as their cure.

Affected Groups

it effects dwarves and humans. mostly effects the poorer classes due to improper water decontamination.

Hosts & Carriers

a 10th of the rodent population are not born with the antibodies to kill the parasite and the swiftly die before the parasite can ever fully mature and release only a small number of eggs.

Prevention

boiling water along with alcohol both destroy the parasites egg along with half a tables spoon of salt mixed thoroughly into the water is guaranteed to kill any of its eggs. only salt harms a hatched parasite.

Epidemiology

the disease is common in water shortages due to the population resorting to drinking dirt water and not using the prevention methods. It is also common in locations where boiling water is not an option or not easy.

History

There was an outbreak of Night Hunger in Floating City when there was a large celebration when news that the first colony on Aurora was flourishing that caused a large amount of damage to the city's infrastructure during the partying. the damaged infrastructure and lack of booze from the party caused the citizens to drink from the water during their hangover. previously there had been a few outbreaks due to people being to lazy to boil water but the cure was relatively well known and most people could spot symptoms but that is when they are sober and with a recent storm stirring up the lake it was the perfect storm for an outbreak of the disease rapidly nearly a third of the population was infected another third was out of commission to hungover or otherwise to care leaving only a third that could deal with the problem. The problem wasn't noticed until it developed and then it was hard to tell who was infected and who was drunk which meant three quarters of those infected reached full maturity quickly causing a riot of violence, cannibalism and blood drinking the only reprieve being day time in the end when all those infected died of the disease running its course or their friends killing them in self defense less than a quarter of the original population remained alive. the city eventually recovered creating a strict law in a lawless society of decontaminating water on punishment of death by lynch mob.

Cultural Reception

It depends on the stage if it has not yet developed fully they are often happily treated by an elder or family member. Although if it has fully developed the a granted a swift death to prevent the disease from spreading.

Type

Parasitic

Origin

Mutated

Cycle

Short-term

Rarity

Uncommon