zompist bboard

Got any interesting ideas for diseases? These are from my conworld. The first item on the list is taken directly from a dream, which is why it doesnt make a lot of sense, so I may change it a bit.

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Damarora syndrome

Damarora syndrome, known to Poswobs as pworwambwup, is a disease of babies caused partly by malnutrition that leads them to refuse to eat or take in any nutrition except by suckling. They do not necessarily die of starvation, although they must be already near starvation before they get it. The disease causes them to waste away and lose their baby teeth, and the skin develops growths underneath its surface. This is actually an organism that will tear them apart from inside if not treated.

Last Bite disease

Known as pirasiom sasa, Last Bite disease is a rabies-like condition that spreads by bites from infected animals to its victims. However, the disease is not quickly fatal as rabies is. Indeed, it actually causes victims to lose their teeth, meaning that they cannot spread the disease anymore. If they are animals, they most likely will starve soon.

Mumu sasa

An AIDS-like disease spread by the bite of inflected flies. It affects mostly humans, with the flies being able to live indefinitely while carrying the virus. Like AIDS, Mumu sasa is fatal and causes victims to die of opportunistic infections rather than from the virus itself. It can spread through sexual contact or other body fluids, but the primary method of transition is the flies. Thus it can be thought of as a combination of AIDS and malaria.

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Sunàqʷa the Sea Lamprey says:

mumu sasa sounds like the end of all hope... unless you're in a pretty cold environment.

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"There was a particular car I soon came to think of as distinctly St. Louis-ish: a gigantic white S.U.V. with a W. bumper sticker on it for George W. Bush."

Flash cancer

Taasaweans display a spectacular genetic disease. Unlike humans, senescence is unknown among Taasaweans. However, after approx. one hundred Taasaw years (200 Earth years), a Taasawean displays a rapid increase in cellular division creating what they call a Flash Cancer. Extremely painful, it is known to make witnessing Taasawean feel such a way to artificially waken the same disease (by some kind of Nocebo effect), while those who hear the screams of those dying like that are said to be easily prone to physiological depression afterwards (it seems to weaken the emotional system Taasaweans have).

The answer to the disease has been, for the most part, cultural. There is a culture where people will retire from their life around 80, then for the following 15 years will travel around the world, and finally, they'll take a pill that will kill them. The pill was initially instantaneous, but with time, they came to create pills that are chaotic in their release, leading to an unsure time of death. The death is made to be as painless as possible. Other cultures have been known to ritually kill people reaching 95 years of age. It is considered to be barbaric/sociopathic to send such dying people on battlefields, but it has happen on some occasions creating genocidal situations. Since genetics are still unknown on Taasaw, they haven't started to take a more medical view on it. Prognostics are obviously easy to know.

It seems there are no ill effects on other species. Other sentinent species on Taasaw have witnessed and heard the death of a Taasawean like that once, and while they were shaken by the pain, no research has found to leave them marked by the scream, and no artificial wakening happened in their body. They do, however, felt it was a gross view afterwards. Humans are similarly not affected.

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"Ez amnar o amnar e cauč."
- Daneydzaus

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George Corley
Producer and Moderating Host,

I think the flies that carry Mumu sasa will be types that have a lifespan of only a few days, so that even if somehow the whole fly population became infected, they'd die off soon anyway without transmitting it to their young. "Live indefinitely" was bad wording, I just meant the virus doesnt kill the flies by itself. So most of the flies, at any given time, are harmless, and only a few are infected. And the sexual mode of transmission isnt as common as AIDS because the virus isnt able to survive very long without direct bloodstream contact. Also it's possible that even in the final stages of infection there wont be enough copies of the Mumu virus in a person's bloodstream for them to be guaranteed to be picked up by a random biting insect.

Regarding Last Bite disease, yeah, it's a gradual loss of teeth over several months. It also has other symptoms including uncontrollable aggressive behavior, which is why it is similar to rabies. So animals will bite each other and transmit the disease that way, and also some predators will be unable to kill their prey, instead just passing on the virus. Humans infected with pirasiom will often have to be tied up so that they dont attack others, and can only handle soft foods, plus they are weakened by fever, so they dont usually live very long. Biting is not necessary to spread the virus ... toothless humans can still infect other humans, since the virus lives in the saliva, all you have to do is spit in someone's mouth and they're infected. Kissing sometimes works too, in the early stages of the disease when it's not apparent the other person is infected.

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Sunàqʷa the Sea Lamprey says:

I had a ridiculous disease idea for Aten. (Although Aten itself is ridiculous.)

Moks (it's casual-speech name) is an airborne disease. It causes alternating fevers and chills, can dull senses of the head (sight, sound, taste, smell, and more importantly, the sensing of fine magics), and a feeling that one's hands are working slowly or weakly, and are occasionally numb. (Hands being a major magical center of the body, and a sensor of broad magics.)

Moks also causes, rather than circular or irregular spots, squarish and rectangular spots to form along the side of the face, the neck, and the hands. Because Moks is not life-threatening and easily cured, it's actually sought after, for the "designs" that appear on victims.

Moks is popular among adolescents, and is a must for pop idols.

@valiums: Sounds like a satire of something.

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"There was a particular car I soon came to think of as distinctly St. Louis-ish: a gigantic white S.U.V. with a W. bumper sticker on it for George W. Bush."

The Great Bleeding Disease
The Great Bleeding Disease, duolbeaparmela, is a viral hemorrhagic fever, spred by contamination with bodily fluids. The first symptoms are loss of coagulation, fever, and bleeding of the gums. The next afflictions are loss of appetite, petechia, and hematemesis. Due to the disease's presence in a pre-Industrial society, it was a death sentence. In fact, the highest treason punishment in the Ardinorian Empire was infecting the condemned with the Great Bleeding Disease.

*duolbeaparmela < duolbea 'bleeding' + parmela 'suffered'

Yay for infectious agents. And there are enough horrifying/outlandish things in real life that making good fake diseases requires a good imagination.
Anyways, I offer the following:

Brittle-Bone Fever
This disease is caused by a heat-resistant bacterium that can be found in several types of animals, and it gets transferred to humans through the consumption of contaminated meat or produce, such as wheat. The danger is that this bacterium secrets a toxin containing a chelating agent to bind calcium in the bloodstream. As the bound calcium leaves the body, the body must draw more calcium to replace it. This can then lead to osteoporosis and many other complications, with death being possible if left untreated.
Treatment is through calcium replacement and antibiotics, but the most effective antibiotic medicines against this bacterium, such as Salversan, have rather nasty side effects. Preventative measures include inoculation against the toxin (which is possible), and it most commonly occurs in the underdeveloped countries (such as Oshaháru, who seems to ignore its existence).

Bacterium-Induced Ergotism-Like Disease
A certain type of mycobacterium will contaminate fungi that grow on grains, such as wheat and rye, or grapes. When ingested, particularly by humans, a toxin is secreted that happens to be quite similar to ergotamine, the compound in ergot that causes many of the hallucinations and problems associated with ergotism. And the fun is that, since it's a bacterium, it's continuously secreting this toxin, so most victims are in a perpetual state of hallucinating.
Again, the best treatments are full of fun side effects, and an inoculation against this toxin has not yet been found. It's endemic to the Glaagh Empire and, by extension, to part of the Epemale Republic.

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What do you see in the night?

In search of subjects to appear on banknotes. Inquire within.

Grenesr

A bacterial disease native to Maiyan, the Hasiq, Zukes, and Muphridians are immune to the disease, however it does infect Gaxikan, as well as humans and Zevinowati.

For humans and Gaxikaen it isn't all that problematic, though it does take around a month for the disease to run its course. There is a roughly 1 week long incubation period, followed by a week of symptoms similar to a cold or flu, with sore throat, runny nose, sneezes, and occasionally a cough, along with a moderate fever and a slight increase in the ease of bruising. Following this, small spots (about the size of a pencil eraser) appear in various places on the body, usually on the extremities, the spots are flat and do not itch. Initially they are red, though they grow slightly larger and turn the color of a bruise after another week, before fading away as a normal bruise would. On rare occasions, normally involving people with a weakened immune system, the disease can be much more severe, with the spots occurring earlier on in the progression of the disease, and in a much greater number, along with bleeding from the gums or nose, or from the spots, and major bruising from only minor injuries. The minor version is rarely fatal, however the serious version is almost always fatal without medical attention. When the disease infects Zevinowati, it almost always is the serious version. The disease spreads though contact with an infected person's blood from the incubation period to when the spots begin to turn into bruises, or though the air during the cold/flu like stage.

A vaccine exists for Zevinowati, however none is known for humans or Gaxikaen, though the disease itself is easily treatable with antibiotics when treated early.

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[quote="Nortaneous"]Is South Africa better off now than it was a few decades ago?[/quote]

I'm gonna go ahead and pervert the topic and make my post about ethnomedicine: so no 'real' diseases, but diseases the way the Ieseleu see them... well, one of them, aynway.

kosenoiu
litearlly meaning 'fucking illness', but only in the sense of 'illness that is acquired through fucking'. Kosenoiu is, most likely, some sort of strain of siphilis: it has little to none physical symptoms, but it causes hallucinations, paranoia and, for some people, death. The hallucinations are often of an abstract nature, generally taking the form disconnected sounds and colours. Many affected also experience synesthesia, mainly in the form of non-aural stimuli being interpreted as aural [colours and smells being sounds]. Since the second century the clerics and other holy men of some marginal cults, especially those from the not-so-settled regions and urban slums, actively seek out contagion, since the hallucinations are thought to give the affected access to sacred visions and other spiritual powers. The most organized cults have a series of folk remedies that prolong the life of the affected individual, although some are more effective than others. Urban dwellers throughout the Netegeniu (that's the Ieseleusphere, so to speak) have believe the disease greatly heightens one's sex drive, and therefore adscribe it to anyone with a very conspicuous libido. In the lore of Ieseleu medics the word is used as a rough equivalent of our concepts of nymphomania/priapism.

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The Elegines tend toward minor to moderate congenital disorders (most genetic) rather than infectious diseases, including real-world disorders such as leucism (lieugisme) and myostatin deficiencies (Adalbertijn lacertisme).

Vision sorcellerijk (lit. "magic vision"), a disease which runs in families whose members historically possess powerful magical abilities. It results in visual acuity, which, when measured, is generally in the range of 20/(-2)-(-7), with 20/-14 being the highest on record. It is often accompanied by increased photosensitivity, and can also result in headaches from the overprocessing of information. The most usual treatment is spectacles which worsen vision to around 20/5. Its occurrence is highly erratic, and it has been known to skip two or even three generations before reappearing.

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"Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure."
-Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

My first thought was ethnomedicine rather than disease itself too.

Tinte /ˈtin.de/ An affliction blamed for when an individual attempts to kill everyone else in their household. The cause is thought to be a particular form of bewitchment. Sufferers often describe it as being in a sort of waking dream. Oškuxa /ʔoʃˈku.χə/, the Chompi equivilant to Hippocrates, cautioned against any retaliation against tinte sufferers after the fact because of their bewitchment. It is acceptable to defend oneself against a tinte sufferer's attack. Tinte is feared not only for its death toll but because a witch capable of afflicting someone with tinte is thought to be very powerful.

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In every U.S. presidential election between 1976 and 2004, the Republican nominee for president or for vice president was either a Dole or a Bush.

Awesome!

*goes to kill entire family*

Oops, a witch did it !

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There would be no possibly of cheating the system in the minds of the Chompi. The witch would be sought out using extispicy (the reading of animal entrails). If the omens showed that no witch existed, the act would be murder and not tinte.

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In every U.S. presidential election between 1976 and 2004, the Republican nominee for president or for vice president was either a Dole or a Bush.

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George Corley
Producer and Moderating Host,

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"Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure."
-Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

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The stars are an ocean. Your breasts, are also an ocean.

I think you can just extrapolate the scale into the negative numbers even if it betrays its original meaning. So: It would be possible, yes, but not with normal human eyes. You'd need more rods and cones than we have. An eagle would probably qualify. A human brain would probably have difficulty coping with that amount of visual information, though.

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Sunàqʷa the Sea Lamprey says:

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George Corley
Producer and Moderating Host,

Sure you can, you just need a eyes in back of head spell.

of course, that's not what the guy meant. Maybe something like 40/1 instead ? though that's... well... telescopic, to say the least.

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George Corley
Producer and Moderating Host,