Withering Sands

How are were supposed to deal with such a plague when it turns everyone that catches it turns to sand? We live in the desert; it's impossible to avoid! - Paranoid Man

Transmission & Vectors

The disease is spread through the air by the sand the victims produce. It infects anyone that inhales it or enters open pores to enter the body. Any wind that happens to blow where the sand is will be carried and increase the chances that some will be infected.

Causes

Sands of Death

No one knows the true origins of where the sand that causes the diseases comes from nor why it causes such a condition. But the orange sand is the main reason the disease spread. The desert that it has come from makes it the perfect place for it to thrive as the climate infects many people without knowing and makes it entirely unavoidable if someone were to inhale it or enter their open pours. Causing paranoia amongst the people in a settlement to fear anyone traveling through the desert if they carry the disease within them.

Symptoms

Fever: The first signs of infection are a fever that makes the infected feel overwhelmingly hot and wish to remove clothing to cool off and find shaded areas to stay cool under or even stay out at night to embrace the cool air.
Fatigue: A feeling of tiredness will come over the infected as they lack the energy to move, just sleeping or lying around, not wanting to do anything. While sleep can help restore some of their strength, it will not last for long, and it will become worse as the infection spreads.
Dehydration: The infection will target the water inside the body and begin to dry out and make the infected want to drink anything to satisfy their thirst until it is satisfied. However, it can cause the infection to spread faster as the extra water will cause it to spread in its attempts to absorb it.
Numbness: Parts of the body will begin to feel numb and will be unable to feel anything in certain areas even long after the flesh erodes from their body. Numbness will continue to spread across the body to the point that the infected will have trouble moving and affect organs, often leading to death as their heart may stop.
Flesh Decay: The infected flesh will begin to decay, but rather than rotting away, the flesh will change and become sand and fall off the body. It will not affect bone, leaving pieces off of an infected's own bones to show around areas where their flesh fell off.
Dried Flesh: As the inflection spreads, the water in the body will begin to disappear from the body and will begin to shrivel like a raisin in the sun. Becoming nothing more than skin and bones when they reach the later stages if they survive for that long.

Treatment

There is no cure for the disease as the origins of where it comes from are unknown; the best chance of not getting it is not to inhale the sand produced by the disease.

Prognosis

Death is always the outcome of the disease as their flesh slowly changes to sand as they slowly wither away until nothing but their bones are all that's left of them, along with all the sand they created to be spread by the wind to carry it.

Prevention

The only possible way to avoid catching the disease is to prevent inhaling that orange sand produced by the infected, as there is no to stop the infection from spreading. But there have been claims that the disease cannot survive in water and die in it. Some people take baths whenever they come back from the desert to avoid inflection.

Epidemiology

The disease spreads by inhaling sand or having it going into the eyes or ears created by those who have the condition, which looks like the darker color of orange sand created by the decaying body of those infected.

History

Unknown Pandemic

In recent memory a new terrible disease has appeared throughout the Eastern Lands. It has since become an ever-growing pandemic that has claimed the lives of tens of thousands since its discovery when travelers that crossed the desert of the Jantani showed signs of the sickness and slowly turned to sand. Many healers tried their best to stop this, but the spread of the infection continued more and more as time went on. Causing the people fearing to possibly becoming infected themselves and flee to the coast. Rumors that water could kill the disease led many to take refuge in the city-states or any settlement with water near it. It has caused a rise in overpopulation and famine, with many places unable to support the increasing numbers of their populations. Forcing many to live beyond the walls of their settlements with the fear of infection amongst these refugees. Now many try to flee the east in search of more fertile lands to avoid the disease altogether. As it seems to only exist in desert environments and cannot spread in places where water is plentiful

Cultural Reception

Those discovered with the disease are considered a lost cause and sent away to live out the rest of their day in the wilderness until the elements or the condition take them. While some have tried to help these individuals, all forms of medicine have had no effect in stopping the infection. The lack of a possible cure for the disease has led many settlements to be wary of outsiders and changes in the wind that could carry the sand. Making entire settlements shut themselves into their own homes until they feel that it is safe enough to walk outside.

Type

Bacterial

Origin

Natural

Cycle

Chronic, Acquired

Rarity

Common

Affected Species

• Humans

No Cure

by TheMIS Photography

Without understanding what caused this disease or its true origins, there is no progress in creating a cure. Leading to nothing more than rumors and gossip on what it was caused by, ranging from an unknown animal to magic. Causing many that are devoted to finding a cure to do anything they can think of to reach their goal. Yet none have been fortunate, and the masses have begun to pray in search of salvation where science has failed them.

Possible Leads

by Oliver Sjöström

While there is no cure for the disease, that does not mean that there are not any leads to finding one. Some have begun to look away from the desert for answers, searching for a cure in more fertile lands. For it seems that the treatment may rest in there as the disease appears to halt in these lands and fails to spread its taint to new victims. Though the search may be much more complex, the main reason for this is still unknown and has yet to be determined.