-- Sir Thomas Browne, Religio Medici, 1643 A.D.
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"It's insidious."
Dr. Aemilius Cammius listened intently as the pair quickly made their way down the sterile halls of the hospital. His companion was a local doctor, a woman by the name of Althea Verus.
"The infections began about two week ago," Dr. Verus briefed. "The early stages of the pathogen mimic the symptoms of the flu and, as you know, we're in the middle a rather severe flu season."
Aemilius was an expert in infectious diseases, specializing in respiratory diseases, including influenza and other flu-like diseases.
"Fevers, chills, every symptom one would expect in a flu," Dr. Verus continued. "It wasn't until a few days in, when the patients should have been recovering, that we realized something was incredibly wrong. Their conditions suddenly worsened. Their fevers spiked, and--" She hesitated. "Well...you'll see."
The pair of doctors rounded a corner in the hospital and continued on toward the ward.
"We lost our first patient just over a week ago. Since then we estimate we're losing more than a third of all our patients."
Dr. Verus stopped in front of a glass window that looked into a room. Inside two patients lay in their sickbeds, both looked feverish. One simply lay in his bed as a slight trickle of blood ran down his face from his nostrils and the corner of his mouth. The other was leaning slightly out of his bed vomiting blood into a small bucket.
"The staff have taken to calling it: Blood Fever."
"Near as we can tell, in the late stages the pathogen begins to more aggressively attack the soft tissues of the upper Respiratory Tract in order to facilitate increased replication. As you can see the damage is severe enough to cause profuse bleeding."
Profuga City was not unaccustomed to disease or suffering. The city’s very name hinted at lost hope and forgotten dream. And yet, thousands upon thousands of miles from the heart of Imperial power in Drakonia, in Disia, this distant colony in Varathron, many generations of refugees and immigrants lived alongside colonists and alike natives. They had seen their shanty towns and makeshift camps give way, pushed aside by skyscrapers and manufacturing plants, and still they came. Even the recent war had not deterred them. For Profugium had need of skilled and semi-skilled workers. Whereas the rest of Disia was devoted to providing its vast natural resources to fueling the needs of the Imperial economy, Profuga City supplemented the colony’s need for manufactured goods, when imports from the homeland fell short.
"This pathogen, it's diabolical," the local doctor continued. "At this hospital, we have 63 patients who either have the flu or this new disease. There have been eighteen confirmed deaths."
It had been Dr. Althea Verus who had alert the Imperial Ministry of Health in Drakonia to the new threat. She was young with unusual auburn hair, barely out of her residency, but her olive skin revealed her Drakonian heritage. Whether she was born here in Disia or off in Drakonia was unclear. Dr. Cammius had been told she specialized in pathology and emergency medicine. Both of which were now of vital importance.
"And it’s highly contagious. I've got one doctor and two nurses down sick already." Dr. Verus paused, looking back to the patients. "With all the bleeding, the pathogen seems to spread into the blood stream, and then it only a matter of time until serious complication occurs. Fatalities seem to result from complications; sudden spikes in fevers, blood loss, pneumonia, or the organs just shut down."
"Antivirals?"
"Negligible effect, at best." Dr. Verus sighed. "With the flu our supplies were already stretched. We've administered what we had, but it’s hard to tell if it making much of a difference at all."
Dr. Aemilius Cammius was much older than his counterpart, middle aged, he was balding and what hair he had began the inevitable march toward a grey color. He spent most of his time in an office and not a hospital, so despite an active lifestyle his physique bulged and drooped in places he would really rather it would not. Cammius had been sent by the Imperial Ministry of Health to evaluate the pathogen and report back on the danger it posed to the population of the colony.
"We're still not quite sure about origin of the pathogen.” Dr. Verus stood eye transfixed on the patients as she talked. “But the first cases were among the foreign population, so it’s possible that it’s from somewhere else in the world. Samples of the pathogen have been sent to Mille Mortifere* and Drakonia for analysis."
As Cammius stood there listening to the young woman, he realized that he would be doing more than just evaluating and reporting. He would be on the frontline, desperately trying to develop a treatment for this new disease. Cammius had been sent to Disia evaluate the danger posed by the pathogen and now that he understood that danger, he understood the need for swift action to counteract it.
"What about containment," he asked.
"Containment?!" She almost laughed, meeting his gaze. "We're two weeks too late for that."
When he flew into Disia, Cammius had seen that precautions had already been taken to prevent the spread of the disease beyond the colony. He had seen military personnel in the airport screening passengers.
"This is out there," Dr. Verus declared, gesturing for emphasis at the two patients suffering on the other side of the glass. "Whatever we do now will only slow the spread of the disease, but believe me, it’s already jumped any cordons we've put in place. This pathogen is already out there in the world, beyond our reach; it’s spreading, and it’s killing people. It is only a matter of time before the rest of world realizes they’re in the middle of an epidemic."
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* Mille Mortifere is a Drakonian Territory located in Gholgoth. Drakonia is located outside the region proper.
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