Orion blood fever, also called simply Orion fever, was a particularly virulent disease of the blood that originated from the Rigel system.
- By their names, origins and apparent symptoms, this disease may be the same as or related to Rigellian blood-burn fever and Rigellian fever.
Overview[]
Orion blood fever was a virus. It was airborne and could be contracted by close contact with an infected host. It struck quickly with little warning and extreme effects. After that, it had a quick development cycle, able to incapacitate an average Klingon in under 12 hours.
Early symptoms included a high body temperature and acute swelling around the joints. Powerful hallucinations occurred in the intermediate stage. By the final stages, mental faculties deteriorated due to the intensely high body temperature. This was marked by the patient feeling paranoid, persecuted and helpless. It had a high mortality rate.
A cure was still unknown by the mid-2280s. However, in some cases, major blood transfusions were able to slow the advance of the virus, giving the body's own natural defenses time to counteract it. Apart from this, the only way to stop its spread was to quarantine affected areas and infected patients. (FASA RPG module: A Matter of Priorities)
History[]
Orion blood fever was first discovered with an outbreak among the population of Rigel VII in reference stardate 2/1203 (2270). It quickly spread and ravaged a number of Klingon settlements near the Triangle region of space, and almost entirely depopulated these planets. A quarantine halted the epidemic. (FASA RPG modules: A Matter of Priorities, Star Trek IV Sourcebook Update)
There was no known cure for Orion blood fever by the mid-2280s.
A Klingon intelligence base on Valtor III apparently suffered an outbreak of a local Valtorian disease that was very similar to a strain of Orion blood fever. Blood samples were taken from D'Vanna, an Orion slave girl, in an attempt to make an antidote against it. However, by stardate 2/2209 (c. 2285), this disease was revealed to in fact be caused by Triburnias wine, a potent drug with similar effects. (FASA RPG module: A Matter of Priorities)