Plague
Plague is a deadly disease, requires a skilled doctor and medicine critical to survival. It also causes a strong penalty to mood due to considerable amount of pain, along with the standard 'Sick' thought. You must make sure that victims get treatment ASAP, and that they remain in bed while developing immunity. The bonus immunity gain speed could mean the difference between life and death. It can be caught in any biome randomly.
As the plague progresses at an alarming rate, it can kill an untreated colonist in a mere 1.5 days from discovery. Good treatment can slow the disease to the point where it takes 6 days to kill.
It takes around 2.121 days to develop immunity to the plague; assuming the affected colonist is rested in an ordinary bed for the whole time, has normal blood filtration, is well-fed, and under the age of 40.
Defeating the Plague
Ensure the afflicted get as much bed rest as possible by prioritizing 'Rest until Healed' and get them the best medical treatment available. Penoxycyline boosts the immunity up to 61% as of Alpha 16.
Treating Normal People (<40 Years Old)
You need at least 40%+ average treat quality to slow the Plague's progression down sufficiently so that it doesn't kill the victim.
The following combinations of doctoring skill and medicine are capable of achieving 40% treatment quality (assuming a perfectly healthy, unmodified doctor, the patient is rested and well-fed at all times, below the age of 40, and treatment is administered immediately) - you'll generally want to aim above these thresholds for safety though; these combinations are just the bare minimum required, and aren't guaranteed to work out:
- Level 1 Medicine skill and glitterworld medicine
- Level 4 Medicine skill and standard medicine
- Level 8 Medicine skill and herbal medicine
Treating the Elderly (80+ Years Old)
It's notably more difficult to treat the elderly as they only gain immunity at 80% of the standard rate - unless they have improved blood filtration. Your doctors will need to be capable of administering an average of 65%+ treatment quality in order for your elderly to survive. Again, this is the bare minimum figure and doesn't take into account the time to reach the medicine and the patient - so you'll generally want to aim above this.
The following combinations of doctoring skill and medicine type are capable of administering 65% treatment quality:
- Level 3 Medicine skill and glitterworld medicine
- Level 8 Medicine skill and standard medicine
- Level 15 Medicine skill and herbal medicine
If high quality treatment is not available, consider administering luciferium to the patient, which will dramatically boost their blood filtration and thus rapidly achieve immunity. If you are early enough, a dose of Penoxycyline dramatically boosts the survival chances by instantly boosting the immunity.
Stages
These are the following stages in which the Plague will progress through, and the effects it has on the victim:
Minor (Hidden) - Severity: 0.01 - 0.39
- No effects on the affected colonist
- Buildup to the initial 40% disease head start that the plague has
Minor - Severity: 0.4 - 0.59
- +20% Pain
- -5% Consciousness
- -5% Manipulation
Major - Severity: 0.6 - 0.79
- +35% Pain
- -20% Consciousness
- -20% Manipulation
Extreme (Initial) - Severity: 0.8 - 0.9
- +60% Pain
- -30% Consciousness
- -30% Manipulation
Extreme (Advanced) - Severity 0.91 - 1
- +85% Pain
- -30% Consciousness
- -30% Manipulation
- -15% Breathing
Progression
- When not immune, severity increases by 0.4 per day.
- When immune, severity decreases by 0.2 per day.
- Immunity increases by 0.3 per day when sick.
- Treatment slows progression by a maximum of 0.3 per day.
- This means the disease will progress by 0.1 per day at this rate.
- Deadly diseases
- Flu • Infection • Lung rot • Malaria • Plague • Sleeping sickness •
Blood rot
• Infant illness
- Non-fatal diseases
- Fibrous mechanites • Gut worms • Muscle parasites • Sensory mechanites • Paralytic abasia
- Animal diseases
- Scaria