Questions tagged [diseases]
For questions related to a disorder (illness, disease and sickness) that affects the function or structure of an organism.
221
questions
5
votes
3answers
146 views
A Rabid Black Death, Part I: How Virulent Would it Be?
Our first record of rabies, the infamous foaming madness disease, dated all the way back to 2000 BC. The foaming at the mouth and excessive aggression are among the most recognizable symptoms of ...
18
votes
14answers
4k views
Would a Pre-Columbian America with its own plagues still be vulnerable to Old World diseases?
Most of the Native Americans in our history were killed by smallpox, measles, etcetera, and this video makes a good case for why: though the Americas had cities of their own, they lacked many options ...
5
votes
3answers
173 views
How can a government really track the source of infection during a pandemics?
How can a government really track the source of infection during a pandemics
An airborne pandemic is affecting the entire country and the hospitals are overflowing with patients. The number of severe ...
3
votes
6answers
235 views
Could a bug sting induce a human body to explode?
The setup is similar to a funny horror movie or like Troma movies. Deaths only happen to insignificant, unnamed characters.
However, I would like to have some plausible science back-up (maybe slightly ...
2
votes
1answer
111 views
A very strange and specific pathogen
The pathogen is dormant, spread amongst the lymph nodes and other places within an animal commonly found in places of relatively high temperatures, near volcanoes and similar locations. It remains ...
5
votes
2answers
220 views
How to Safely Sterilize Europa?
In The Lost Fleet series, it's established that a genetically-engineered disease was accidentally released on Europa, which wiped out all the colonists present. By the time of the series, an insane ...
5
votes
4answers
232 views
Closest real neurological disorder to the state of being an eldritch entity?
This is going to take some explaining, but the basic idea is thus:
In the world I'm creating, if matter is exposed to enough magical energy it ceases to respect the laws of physics and becomes known ...
6
votes
3answers
725 views
Lethal Pandemic
I'm looking to create a lethal disease for a sci-fi book. The plot surrounds a group of rich people taking teenagers off earth to start a new life away from this illness. The pandemic has been going ...
1
vote
1answer
93 views
I need to find a disease [duplicate]
I am currently working on character building in preparation for my first movie screenplay. One of my characters is a 15-17 year old girl with a terminal disease. Here are some requirements for the ...
18
votes
16answers
6k views
How do I ensure that two characters survive the black death without making them naturally immune?
Everyone in my community is collapsing to the ground and dying painfully. My husband, he is one of the few remaining men to bury the dead and I worry that soon I'll be left alone.
How do I ensure that ...
2
votes
4answers
223 views
How would WW1 trench warfare be fought if a biological weapon was released on one side by the other?
Sawdust bread, trenches with mud reaching up to your ankles, artillery pounding each other nearly 24/7, troops crossing no-man’s land only to be cut down by heavy machine gun fire...
Trench warfare ...
1
vote
2answers
90 views
Diseases that require long-term hospital admission [closed]
Is there an illness wherein
1) it can be diagnosed in teens(16-18 preferably) and could eventually lead to death.
2) it requires long-term admission to the hospital because the condition may ...
2
votes
2answers
194 views
Changing humans to their mirror image versions to become immune to infectious diseases
If we could replace DNA, RNA and the ribosomes in our cells by their mirror image versions, then everything would work in the same way, except that the chirality of all molecules would have been ...
9
votes
1answer
824 views
Placebo-worthy drug?
Are there any medicine out there specifically used to treat serious illnesses (it could be something as simple as painkillers to something for a very rare chronic illness) that could be swapped out ...
2
votes
1answer
33 views
What disease prevents donating bone marrow? [closed]
In my story character signed agreement by which he had to donate bone marrow to person in need of it in exchange of money. Right after signing agreement, character received money (lets say its enough ...
3
votes
3answers
103 views
In futuristic domed cities terrified of pandemics, how would spread be prevented between domes?
With the Covid-19 pandemic currently underway, it's a bit easier to imagine a world where the virus is more lethal and even brutal measures are used to contain the spread of diseases. In the scenario ...
24
votes
13answers
5k views
How does a disease cause its hosts to travel more?
Diseases that cause changes in the behaviour of their hosts are nothing new. Rabies causing animals to bite others is the best known example, but there are plenty of other (often nightmarish) ...
4
votes
4answers
342 views
How would a world occupied by just teenagers occur? [duplicate]
My story is set in a post apocalyptic setting where there are only teenagers and children. Also, cities are overrun with knee high grass and large lakes. Animals have evolved and have gotten more ...
2
votes
1answer
128 views
Can 2019-nCoV be altered to be carried by the wind?
After surveying customers about their new product, 2019-nCoV™, E.V.I.L. Inc. realized that many of them would pay for an upgrade which allows for the virus to be carried by the wind itself in order to ...
2
votes
1answer
70 views
How could a pathogen feed on silicon while infecting humans? [closed]
How could a pathogen feed on silicon in computers while infecting humans with a high degree of success?
The world here is a few years away from general AI and the commercialization of GM humans. Non-...
0
votes
1answer
197 views
Time travelling virus anno 1900
One of the most well known, but commonly ignored issues of time travel is this:
Due to the fact that viruses and bacteria constantly evolve, diseases that we are today resistant to have never before ...
1
vote
1answer
116 views
What would a moderately more advanced society on Earth do to stop a pandemic? [closed]
The Coronavirus is spreading all over the world and it seems to be airborne, highly contagious and hard to contain. If I survive, I want to write a pandemic story. Let’s say there is an airborne virus ...
4
votes
2answers
156 views
How do I preserve my Wendigo Prion?
Wendigo fever is a Prion (credit goes to SE is too politically correct for the idea) which is spread by the consumption of tainted meat. the main problem I have is to my knowledge Prions are solely ...
3
votes
2answers
173 views
Creating a plausible Cyclopia disease
Cyclopia syndrome is a disorder which affects both Giants and Yetis in which in afflicted has only one eye. now Cyclops syndrome is a real thing where the embryonic prosencephalon fails to properly ...
5
votes
3answers
241 views
Creating a plausible Wendigo fever
It is believed that Wendigos are supernatural beings with an insatiable hunger for human flesh, or humans who are selfish and commit cannibalism and while the latter is more accurate, Wendigo fever is ...
1
vote
2answers
1k views
Could someone be born mute [closed]
In a story I'm writing, the main character is a mute and I was wondering could someone be either born mute or become mute at a very young age in a medieval setting?
Note: magic does not exist in my ...
2
votes
4answers
128 views
How could a medical crisis unite two countries which once bitterly hated each other?
How could a medical crisis unite two countries previously at odds and usher them into a new era of peace, prosperity and perhaps even unity? Think of South and North Korea, or Israel and Palestine.
...
-1
votes
3answers
83 views
Injury that leaves you hospitalized a week [closed]
My protagonist has a work that requires a lot of walking. Now he needs an excuse to be away from work for 5-7 days but after that be able to work normal again without raising any suspicion.
I was ...
2
votes
1answer
140 views
To what extent would a 21st Century Industrial power collapse under an airborne HIV-like virus? [closed]
In an alternate 21st Century Earth, an airborne strain of HIV, or a brand new airborne virus that causes the same symptoms of HIV evolves. The new Super-HIV virus retains the ability to transmit by ...
6
votes
1answer
133 views
Fictional Space Plague - Pandemic - Does this timeline make sense?
For a book that I'm working on I am plotting out various points in time to make sure my plot is following accordingly. I apologize in advance for the lengthy post. It is a fungus-like infection that ...
2
votes
2answers
67 views
How could a mutation of an engineered virus initially be undetectable?
Doctors have found a way to identify the initial strain of this lethal, engineered virus. Most mutations have been easily identifiable by an AI-supported system.
Is it plausible that a mutated ...
7
votes
11answers
3k views
How could a virus go about infecting the entirety of the human race within a short period of time? [duplicate]
In about six months time every human on Earth is infected with a virus. How would a virus spread to cause such a quick transmission rate to infect 7+ billion people?
3
votes
1answer
95 views
Could a waterborne virus contaminate the entire ocean?
Is it plausible that a virus could contaminate the entire ocean to where humans that enter it are highly likely to contract the virus? It doesn't necessarily have to be the whole ocean what with the ...
5
votes
4answers
2k views
Terminal Disease in a Teenager [duplicate]
I’m trying to find the disease/condition my character is going through. She has been diagnosed with a terminal disease, most likely genetic, though not necessarily. She is in high school, so 15-17 ...
2
votes
5answers
2k views
How to explain the absence of transmitted diseases between two unconnected cultures
In my story, I have two late renaissance era cultures discovering each other for the first time and I plan for the story to develop into more of how they both understand each other. However, I don't ...
11
votes
4answers
3k views
what makes a disease deadly?
I am writing a story, in which a mad scientist (based on Ted Kaczynski) wants to kill as many people as possible with an artificially created disease.
The idea is, that more complex societies are ...
1
vote
2answers
115 views
What would happen if a disease broke out in LAX?
To some up my question:
If a super contagious disease broke out in the middle of Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), what would be the response by the US government?
Long explanation:
I had an ...
2
votes
3answers
228 views
How much could a disease spread before discovered?
In my world there is a disease called the "Ravager Plague," and it infects the "Patient Zero" in a nation's capital, a city of 512 Million people.
The disease has the following symptoms:
STAGE 1(39 ...
5
votes
4answers
101 views
How can I make gene therapy using a retroviral vector go wrong and mutate into an airborne contagion?
I've been reading about viral vectors and am looking to incorporate it into my setting. From what I can see, it's possible to use viral vectors as a form of gene therapy, and retroviruses can work ...
2
votes
1answer
129 views
How to prevent vampires from catching bloodborne diseases? [duplicate]
Vampires are known to be humanoid creatures to whom the nutrients in blood are essential.
I will assume that, for the purpose of this question, vampires are entirely human but consume blood, may it ...
3
votes
3answers
165 views
What's a plausible reason for a bacteria/disease to only exist near the surface of a planet?
Context: Humans have escaped a a super-bacteria, similar in situation to the Bubonic Plague, that they could not create a cure for. They've done this by engineering gargantuan trees and adapting to ...
0
votes
2answers
182 views
How would the American government deal with an incurable biological (virus/bacterial/parasite etc.) outbreak?
We're in the United States, sometime in the next few years. Through a series of circumstances, a viral outbreak occurs in the country. For the sake of detail, this is how it happens:
A scientific ...
6
votes
1answer
133 views
Could a blood transfusion from immune survivors of a deadly, bioengineered virus grant the same immunity to those who don't have it?
First question so hope I'm doing this right! Working on a setting right now where a bio-engineered virus/plague is wiping out a large portion of humanity. Most died upon first exposure. Some survived, ...
4
votes
3answers
315 views
Would measles make a good apocalypse?
Let's say terrorists wanted to release a bioweapon that could deal with most of the world's third world population, and they developed a chimera disease that was essentially the measles, but with ...
4
votes
6answers
549 views
What would cause a world wide pandemic?
I am writing a story about being "alone" on earth, I want it to be caused by a virus but I am unsure about the details of it.
I know that the virus:
Should kill most of the worlds population leaving ...
8
votes
1answer
738 views
Can a person who gained immunity to a disease become an infectious carrier?
If a person is sent out of their hermetically sealed community and in the process becomes immune to a deadly disease. When the person returns will the immunity make them a carrier and infect/kill all ...
18
votes
11answers
5k views
How would vampires avoid contracting diseases?
In my fantasy world vampires exist, and most of the intelligent races can be turned into one. I try to make everything in this word kind of explainable by science, at least possible in our Earth.
I'...
3
votes
5answers
451 views
Does a character being allergic to water (specifically the $H_2O$ molecule) make rational sense?
I'm writing a drama book and it's meant to be taken 100% seriously, and the main character was born with an allergy to $H_2O$. She does not have Aquagenic Urticaria, as that only affects the skin. She ...
11
votes
3answers
1k views
Can immunity be reverse-engineered simply by using a blood or tissue sample?
I'm working on a novel, in which a character was given a cutting edge vaccination to a deadly disease. She is now valuable because she was the only one given the vaccine and the research to make more ...
1
vote
1answer
97 views
Robotic Virus Pandemic [closed]
For a story I'm working on, there is an old and advanced civilization consisting of three races, 2 organic and 1 artificial. An ancient enemy has returned, bent on destroying this civilization, and ...
