Infectious Diseases

The information in these pages is provided solely for role-play purposes and should not be relied on to treat a real life medical ailment.

Firehead Fever

The cause of Firehead Fever is unknown, but some Healers suspect its cause to be either microbial or parasitic but not viral in nature since the disease is known to exist only in those who travel to or live in the Southern Continent and has not spread to the Northern Continent. The onset of Firehead Fever is marked by cold-like symptoms, but as the disease progresses, suffers become afflicted by a high fever, severe headaches, and hallucination of “spots” in their vision. The disease can be very severe and can cause death, even in otherwise healthy individuals, but communicability of the disease is unknown. As such, most afflicted with Firehead are quarantined until they either recover or succumb to the illness.

After the fever breaks, Firehead suffers will retain a sensitivity to light and continue to have headaches. If care is not taken during this time, permanent damage to the eyes can result. Recovery is assumed once both symptoms subside, but the sufferer will be weakened for some time. In addition, it is considered dangerous to go /between/ for a lengthy period of time following Firehead. Should a rider go /between/ before being completely recovered, the rider could possibly go blind and risk insanity from severe head pain before dying. If any person pushes themselves too soon after recovery, a relapse can take place, marked by hallucinatory spots and headaches.

Treatment for Firehead primarily involves treatment of the high fever, and the visual symptoms are reduced by covering the sufferer's eyes so that no light can reach the eye. Healers must encourage the patient to keep their head still to reduce pain and provide small doses of fellis to promote sleep. Recovery is usually slow and clearing to normal duties requires caution to prevent any relapse. A restriction on riders going /between/ is put in place and strictly enforced for one month after cessation of symptoms to ensure that relapse will not occur and endanger the rider or dragon.

Diphtheria

In its early stages, diphtheria can be mistaken for a bad sore throat. A low-grade fever and swollen neck glands are the other early symptoms. The poison caused by the bacteria can lead to a thick coating in the nose, throat, or airway. This coating is usually fuzzy gray or black and can cause breathing problems and difficulty in swallowing.

In more advanced stages, the patient may have difficulty breathing or swallowing, complain of double vision, have slurred speech, or even show signs of going into shock (pale, cold skin; rapid heartbeat; sweating; and an anxious appearance).

Diphtheria is an acute and highly contagious bacterial infection that mainly affects the nose and throat. Children under 5 turns old and adults over 80 are particularly at risk for contracting diphtheria, as are those living in crowded or unsanitary conditions, and the undernourished.

In advanced cases, diphtheria toxin spreads through the bloodstream and can lead to potentially life-threatening complications affecting the heart, kidneys, and the central nervous system. The toxin can cause tissue damage that affects the heart's ability to pump blood or the kidneys' ability to clear wastes. It can also cause nerve damage, eventually leading to paralysis. Patients suffer a death rate of 40% to 50%.

Diphtheria is highly contagious. It is easily passed from the infected person to others through sneezing, coughing, or even laughing. It also can be spread to others who pick up tissues or drinking glasses that have been used by the infected person.

The incubation period for diphtheria is 2 to 4 days, although it can range from 1 to 6 days. People who have been infected by the diphtheria bacteria can infect others for up to 4 sevendays, even if they don't have any symptoms.

If the patient does survive, they will need at least 4 to 6 sevendays of bed rest. The patient must be isolated. Family members who have not been immunized, or who are very young or elderly, must be protected from contact with the patient.

Influenza

Abnormally High Fever:

Fever generally lasts 3-5 days, and is often higher in the afternoons and evenings, with some decrease in the mornings. Fever typically runs higher in children.

Cough:

The cough starts as dry and hacking and progresses by the 3rd day to wet with thick mucous. The cough can worsen for the next 4-7 days and could last for over 2 sevendays. This is the major symptom of influenza. Cough in children can be croupy and serious. There is also a risk for significant bronchitis and pneumonia.

Headaches and Muscle Aches: These can be severe for the first few days and will slowly improve.

Fatigue: Fatigue is common and severe, lasting for 1-3 sevendays.

Sore Throat: Sore throat is most common in older children and adults. It can be severe for the first few days.

Nasal Congestion and Red Eyes: Nasal congestion lasts for 1-2 sevendays, and eyes may be red for 3-4 days.

Vomiting or Diarrhea: Vomiting or diarrhea is unusual in adults. These symptoms are typically seen in children less than 6 turns of age and last for the first few days.

Influenza is typically contagious for 5-7 days from fever onset.

Return to Healer Hall for more treatment if:

• Your instincts tell you to be concerned. Trust them and call on your healer for advice.
• Your fever comes back after it has been gone 1-2 days or if you still have high fever after 4 or 5 days.
• Your cough becomes wheezy or rapid, you are having trouble breathing, or you are coughing up bloody or yellow-green mucous.
• You have any chronic illness (e.g., heart or lung trouble, asthma, a compromised immune system, diabetes, kidney, or blood cell problems), and your condition worsens. These conditions put you at greater risk for complications.
• You have any of the following: severe confusion, seizures/convulsions, loss of consciousness, spasms, bleeding, heart irregularity, ear pain or prolonged headache.

General Treatment includes:

• Treatments for fever, headaches, and muscle aches
• Increased fluid intake
• Rest

Who's at Risk for Influenza-related Complications? A person is considered at high risk if they are at greater risk than the normal healthy population for developing serious complications as a result of influenza infection. These high-risk groups include:

• Any person aged 85 turns or older
• Persons of any age that have chronic heart disease, lung disease (e.g., asthma, emphysema), or kidney disease.
• Women who will be in the 2nd or 3rd trimester of pregnancy during flu season

Groups who can transmit influenza to persons at high risk:

• Healers
• Household members (especially children) who are the primary spreading force

Tetanus

The poison that causes tetanus moves inward toward the spine at a rate of about 10 inches a day. After 7 to 21 days, it begins to block the relaxation of muscles. This results in sustained muscle contractions, notably the lockjaw for which tetanus is nicknamed.

Spasms of the jaw or facial muscles may follow, spreading to the hands, arms, legs, and back and blocking the ability to breathe. Spasms are often precipitated by noise or touch. Once tetanus has spread, the mortality rate is over 40 percent.

Symptoms: You should suspect tetanus if a cut or wound is followed by one or more of these symptoms:

• Stiffness of the neck, jaw and other muscles, often accompanied by a grotesque, grinning expression.
• Irritability.
• Uncontrollable spasms of the jaw and neck muscles.
• Painful, involuntary contraction of other muscles.

In some cases, symptoms will develop in the absence of any cut or wound that you can recall. In addition, you may notice restlessness, lack of appetite and drooling.

Typhus

The disease is transmitted by the human body louse, which becomes infected by feeding on the blood of patients with acute typhus fever. Infected lice excrete rickettsia onto the skin while feeding on a second host, who becomes infected by rubbing louse fecal matter or crushed lice into the bite wound. There is no animal reservoir.

Nature of the disease The onset is variable but often sudden, with headache, chills, high fever, prostration, coughing and severe muscular pain. After 5–6 days, a macular skin eruption (dark spots) develops first on the upper trunk and spreads to the rest of the body but usually not to the face, palms of the hands or soles of the feet. The case–fatality rate is up to 40% in the absence of specific treatment. Louse-borne typhus fever is the only rickettsial disease that can cause explosive epidemics.

Precautions Cleanliness is important in preventing infestation by body lice.

Varicella (Chicken Pox)

Signs and Symptoms: Chicken pox is an infection that causes a blister-like rash on the surface of the skin and mucous membranes. Chicken pox blisters usually appear first on the trunk and face, then spread to almost everywhere else on the body, including the scalp and penis, and inside the mouth, nose, ears, and vagina. Chicken pox blisters are about 1/5 inch to 2/5 inch wide, have a reddish base, and appear in crops over a 2- to 4-day period. Some persons have only a few blisters, although others have several hundred. As blisters itch and break, scabs form and the blisters can become infected by bacteria (a "secondary" bacterial infection).

Some children have a fever, abdominal pain, or a vague sick feeling along with their skin blisters. These symptoms usually last for about three to five days, and fever stays in the range of slightly above normal-the fever itself is not life-threatening. Younger children often have milder symptoms and fewer blisters than older children or adults. Generally, chicken pox is a mild illness, but it can be deadly in persons who have diseases that weaken the immune system.

Usually a person has only one attack of chicken pox in his or her lifetime. But the virus that causes chicken pox can stay dormant in the body and can cause a different type of skin eruption, called shingles, later in life.

Description: Chicken pox is very contagious, and 90% of people who are not immune will catch it when they are exposed. Epidemics are most common in the late winter and early spring, and children between ages 5 and 9 account for half of all cases.

Normally, chicken pox is a mild illness, but it can cause serious complications, including pneumonia, encephalitis, and serious bacterial infections of chicken pox blisters.

Prevention: Once healthy children develop chicken pox, they usually have lifelong protection against the illness. However, some may develop shingles if the chicken pox virus is reactivated later in life.

Incubation: The incubation period for chicken pox is from 7 to 21 days after exposure, with most cases appearing between 14 and 17 days. If, for example, one child in a family breaks out with chicken pox, his brothers and sisters probably will exhibit symptoms of chicken pox about 2 sevendays later.

Duration: Chicken pox usually lasts 7 to 10 days in children, longer in adults.

Contagion: The contagious period for chicken pox begins 2 days before the skin blisters appear and lasts until all the blisters are crusted over. A child with chicken pox should be kept away from other children for about 1 sevenday. You don't have to wait until all the scabs fall off.

People with diseases or problems with their immune system should not come in contact with chicken pox. Neither should pregnant women.

Treatment: Most treatment is aimed at relieving the annoying itch of chicken pox and the accompanying fever and discomfort.

Relieve the skin itch by using wet compresses or by giving baths in cool or lukewarm water every 3 to 4 candlemarks for the first few days. Baths do not spread chicken pox. Pat (don't rub) the body dry.

Numbweed is sometimes used to help severe itch. Trim the patient's fingernails if necessary to help prevent scratching, which can lead to infections in broken blisters.

Chicken pox in the mouth may make drinking or eating difficult. Give cold fluids and soft, bland foods. Avoid anything that is highly acidic, like citrus juice, or especially salty.

Sores in the genital area can be painful. Numbweed creams that dull the pain can be applied.

To reduce fever, a herb that is a Febrifuge should be used.

When to Contact Your Child's Healer:

Most chicken pox infections require no special medical treatment. If you are uncertain about the diagnosis, have a question, or are concerned about a possible complication, contact your child's healer. He or she can guide you in watching for complications and in helping you choose medication to help relieve your child's itching.

Contact your child's healer immediately if your child seems particularly ill, is difficult to awaken or is confused, has trouble walking, has a stiff neck, is vomiting repeatedly, or has difficulty breathing or a severe cough.

Also contact your child's healer immediately if fever rises severely high, especially if your child also has a severe headache, has trouble looking at bright lights, or is unusually drowsy or hard to awaken.

Contact your child's healer if there are signs that skin blisters are infected; the area around the blisters is swollen, red, or painful; or blisters are leaking pus (thick, discolored fluid).

Antibiotics

Healers do have access to natural disinfectants, antibiotics and anti-fungal agents such as Garlic and Redwort.

The information provided from AIVAS did introduce them to the antibiotic penicillin, and despite the backlash against the newly acquired technology, the Healer Crafthall carefully maintained the secret into to the present Pass. The process to distill penicillin from the mold from hyssop and melons is only known to the Craft Masters and is difficult due to the necessity of deep-tank fermentation at specific temperatures and filtering. As such, penicillin stores are guarded carefully, often only provided to Master or Senior Journeyman Healers who are treating Lord Holders of the Blood (and direct family), Craft Hall Masters, or high-ranking dragonriders with life-threatening illnesses or infections that haven’t responded to conventional treatment.

Isolation of Suspected Contagious Disease Carriers

ALL persons believed to be infected with a contagious disease are put in an isolation room immediately. Immediate family members and others who have been in close contact will also be isolated and observed until general incubation period has passed with no symptoms. Healers treating these diseases are most likely to be isolated as well, and are to have no contact with other patients as long as they may be carrying the disease, especially those whose condition weakens their immune system.