Shatterlegs Disease

You're walking down the street, when someone bumps into you. Suddenly, your arm is broken. You keel over in pain, and fall to your knees. Now your kneecaps are broken. Someone steps on your hand, and you scream as white pokes from the flesh.
Welcome to the wonderful world of Shatterlegs Disease.

Transmission & Vectors

Contaminated water, moor creatures. Anything liquid that can be contaminated, really.

Causes

Shatterlegs disease is caused by a bacteria that enters the body via gross water, and makes its way into the bones. The bacteria create colonies in the bones, which sacrifice their structural integrity. They also feed primarily off of said bones, further weakening them. It is called "Shatterlegs" because, in the Wastelands around Illaty, where the disease is very common, you usually are walking in swampy wetlands. Water can get in your waterproof pants, or splash on you and soak into your skin, or you can drink it. Whatever the case, the water- and thus the disease- usually come into contact with your legs. Then, the bacteria multiply there, and your leg bones are weakened. They hurt for a bit, and then one day, you try to walk, and they just shatter. Shatterlegs.

Symptoms

Broken bones from light contact, large amounts of broken bones, so on. Pain from little or no pressure to bones.

Treatment

During the Broken Ages, the only real treatment was to make heavy-duty braces to keep your arms and legs in place. There wasn't really a way to treat the bacteria itself. Once more research was put into it, however, it was found that some of the creatures in the Wastelands have blood which contains a compound that proves deadly to the Shatterlegs bacteria.

Epidemiology

Shatterlegs is a non-contagious disease, unless you break your bones and the spiderweb-y colonies get in the water and someone happens to be right there.

Cultural Reception

People, especially during the Broken Ages when Jukko was the dominant religion, often tried to hide their Shatterlegs, either wearing braces that were hidden or trying to sneakily lighten loads, as weakness under Jukko is not tolerated. In the nomadic tribes especially, those with Shatterlegs were often left behind for the Belrix or other creatures, as they could no longer carry their weight (literally) and the tribe cannot afford to carry more than children and elders (and even then, elders were often left too. The nomadic peoples that practiced Jukko were especially strict, as survival was a matter of how mobile you were). As time went on, ways were developed so that, rather than wasting an individual, an extra set of hands and arms, they could continue to function. Various crutches, braces, and prosthetics were developed to make sure the affected could still function mostly properly.

Type

Bacterial

Origin

Alien

Rarity

Common