Sherman's Plague

• Viral hemorrhagic fever native to Sherman's Planet (SCE Short Story: "Oaths")
  • Went dormant c.600 BCE (SCE Short Story: "Oaths")
  • Unearthed July 2376 during excavation (SCE Short Story: "Oaths")
• Intensely contagious (SCE Short Story: "Oaths")
  • 70% of population of Sherman's Planet reporting symptoms prior to cure (SCE Short Story: "Oaths")
  • Capable of surviving outside a human body for hours (SCE Short Story: "Oaths")
  • Adheres to pollen and dust in order to spread via air (SCE Short Story: "Oaths")
  • Capable of infecting anything with a nucleic acid-based genetic structure (SCE Short Story: "Oaths")
• Incorporates itself into DNA of quickly-reproducing cells such as trachea or stomach lining, reproducing from there (SCE Short Story: "Oaths")
• Causes extensive tissue necrosis, resulting in systemic organ failure (SCE Short Story: "Oaths")
  • Targets all bodily systems (SCE Short Story: "Oaths")
• Incubation period of approximately three weeks (SCE Short Story: "Oaths")
  • Presents as simple pulmonary infection during incubation (SCE Short Story: "Oaths")
• Death results from either organ failure or hemorrhaging of the lungs (SCE Short Story: "Oaths")
• Inevitably terminal (SCE Short Story: "Oaths")
  • First fatality recorded July 31, 2376 (SCE Short Story: "Oaths")
  • Death toll of 113 by August 1 (SCE Short Story: "Oaths")
• Cured August 3 through intensive genetic therapy to rewrite native immune system (SCE Short Story: "Oaths")
  • Final death toll approximately 17,000, 0.5% of total planetary population (SCE Short Story: "Oaths")
    • Given as 72,134 per text, but that's closer to 2% of the given population of 3.5 million; no clue where that number came from