Spacer's Fungal Disease

Spacer's Fungal Disease (SpaF-D) is a contagious disease caused by the fungus Armida Teromilia. The first known case occured in Cape Harvard in September 2457. Armida Teromilia was a fungus native to Cape Harvard which is harmful to humans which found a niche staying dormant in spaceship cargo before spreading to other planets. Spacer's Fungal Disease is most notable for an epidemic that occurred from 2496 to 2501 that spread throughout the galactic north.

Epidemiology

Spacer's Fungal Diseases is caused by an infection of A. Teromilia. A. Teromilia typcially will typically begin to grow within the victim's lungs and respiratory system. This will cause fever, lethargy, and coughing, often blood, in the victim. A. Teromilia itself was often root itself within the cargo of spacecraft where it would lay dormant before adequate conditions would allow A. Teromilia to spread. This enabled the fungus to spread beyond Cape Harvard to the rest of the galactic north. SpaF-D usually kills by flooding a victim's lungs with fluid preventing them form being able to breath.

The 2496-2501 Epidemic

The first cases of SpaF-D would begin to appear in Cape Harvard in mid 2457. Victims showed respiratory damage and lungs beginning to fill with fluid. While the newly formed colony would be able to mitigate the fungus diverging priorities meant that the fungus would not get irradicated. As Cape Harvard grew and trade with surrounding colonies increased, the increased traffic provided A. Teromilia an opportunity to spread.
The first recorded case outside of Cape Harvard was discovered on Canard on July 23rd, 2496. From there, cases of SpaF-D would begin to appear throughout the galactic north. By December 2496 SpaF-D would exceed 15 million cases throughout the galactic north. By June 2497 SpaF-D would exceed 37 million cases. As cases would start to spread throughout the north, local governments would begin to close interplanetary travel and trade with other colonies in order to prevent the pread of A. Teromilia.

Societal Impacts

The societal impacts of the epidemic would be wide spread. The northern colonies were still underdeveloped compared to regions in the perseus arm and further south. As more developed colonies would begin to shut down travel and trade valuable resources produced by the developed colonies, such as biological substrates, would stop being delivered to smaller colonies unable to fully provide for themselves. This caused shortages throughout the minor colonies and starving as the ability to produce food diminished dramatically. Over time, mistrust would begin to grow between the minor and major colonies of the north, as the minor colonies would blame the major colonies for their inaction over SpaF-D and shutting down the trade of resources vital to them.
This would eventually led to direct conflict, with small raiding parties forming in the minor colonies to get resources from the major colonies by force. Major colonies would then start to increase security at major resources sites within their colonies. The governments of major colonies would eventually consider escalating the protecting to intervention, but the epidemic would begin to die down before governments would begin to escalate.

Type

Fungal