Blood Draining Virus
Transmission & Vectors
Spreads through saliva and blood contact with infected people.
Causes
Caused by the Vykruis (name of the parasite).
Symptoms
Symptoms vary based on stages.
- The first stage is barely noticeable, with merely an elevated heart rate and slight anxiety.
- The second stage worsens rapidly with decreased pulse and blood pressure. Increase in anxiety, and confusion occurring in the later part of the 2nd stage. Person may feel colder than usual to the touch, and may begin to isolate themselves. They may also begin talking to themselves, seemingly nonsensical run-on sentences; caused by the virus trying to talk to the host.
- The third stage is when the person starts to die. They become ice-cold to the touch and pale-looking, appear to not breath much at all, spend most of their time sleeping, and become very confused when they are conscious. Their appetite drops to almost nothing and may lose a lot of weight depending on how long they stay in the 3rd stage. The person will not advance beyond this stage until they somewhat integrate with the sentient parasite associated with the BDV. If they absolutely refuse to assimilate, they will just die unless they've been given proper medical treatment starting from the 2nd stage.
- The fourth stage results in death, and the reanimation of the person into a vampire. Their fangs may not fully grow in for a few months, though they may get animalistic changes to their body almost immediately after first waking up as a vampire.
Treatment
Nothing can be done to stop it except for a certain level of willpower. The rate in which it turns you into a vampire can be slowed by blood letting and consistently replacing it with fresh blood (but this only works if treatment is started by the 8th hour of becoming infected).
Prognosis
The most likely outcome is that the infected becomes a vampire. Most of the time they’ll lose their sentience, but will usually retain it if they fully embrace the virus, or if the person was born from vampires. If they fail to fully assimilate then there’s a high risk they’ll die. However, if their willpower is strong enough they have a higher chance of not turning into a vampire.
Affected Groups
People with weaker willpower and a compromised immune system are more affected than other groups. Kids are also typically more likely to become vampires.
Prevention
The only ways to prevent catching the virus are to wear clothing thick enough to protect against sharp fangs, or to let a vampire just suck out blood. It’s almost important to cover up any holes or open wounds that could be exposed to infected blood or saliva.
Epidemiology
The Vykruis parasite thrives in hot temperatures. Outside a host it will rapidly asexually reproduce until it finds a host. If not, it’ll look for the next best thing which is iron itself. An outbreak can occur just from a vampire spitting or dripping blood everywhere depending on the climate. A large outbreak happened in the summer time for the Vampire War due to limited information on how vampirism spreads.
Cultural Reception
Victims of the virus are ostracised, often locked away in secluded areas or outright killed in an attempt to avoid more vampires from popping up. This often leads to quicker transitions to vampirism.
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