101 Diseases - lecture

Posted on 10 Jan 2019 @ 12:51am by Captain Daytona Savage & 2nd Lieutenant Ilyce Savage

Mission: From the Darkness
Location: Marine Briefing Centre
Timeline: current

2nd LT Ilyce Savage, turned at the sound of her name, and watched Trevor come rushing across to her. “Do we have a problem?”

“Daytona wants all the unit in on your lectures, whether they are only for Rescue Retrieval and Recovery or not. He's not happy you're not communicating mentally.” 2nd LT Thomas Summers stated and I don't want to know what happened.”

“Nothing happened between him and me.”

Then will you go talk to him, before he skins me alive? I'll move your RRR to the larger briefing centre and get the rest of the unit in. You didn't advise Medical, Science or Command?”

“Command got sent the roster I was going to do. It's not my ship, it's up to Command to broadcast the roster to other departments and let them know, not me.” Ilyce answered. “I shall wait till they advise in response.”

“Go talk to him.” Thomas pleaded.

“I'll talk to him as soon as this lecture is over.” Ilyce answered.

“I don't think you're getting that time.” Thomas watched her jump as Daytona's hand went on her shoulder. Departing to do what he said he would do, he glanced back to see Ilyce turn towards Daytona.

“You cut me....”

“I did something stupid, thinking she'd understand, but the Major didn't. I got told I wasn't to communicate mentally except in an operations capability. She kept saying I was engineering and T'urok was my Department Head. I told her I was not part of Engineering, he wasn't my Department Head, I was Marine Chief Instructor under you, and the command deck had nothing to do with me, and I wouldn't be using my abilities.” Ilyce answered softly.

“Which is why you came straight back to the unit area after training.” Daytona stated. “I can...”

“No. Just let it lay. I went into her mind, she keeps bringing up the CEO.”

“And it cheesed you off.” Daytona stated watching the last of the unit enter the larger briefing room. “Which is why it's only our unit.”

“I sent the schedule to both the Colonel and the Major, it's their choice if they indicate other departments are given the schedule, it's their ship.”

“So you're not running around the ship?”

“And chance running into.....”

“I can fill in the blanks.” He glanced over to see Thomas standing near the larger briefing centre. “After you Marine Chief Instructor.” Daytona waved her in Thomas's direction.

Stepping into the briefing room after Thomas moved aside Ilyce stepped through leaving Daytona and Thomas to follow her. Moving to the front, Ilyce fit her headset and microphone before starting. “This lecture is the first of a collection, over one hundred of extinct infectious diseases, which are making a come back, and at present you won't find them on the computer, because they are extinct, and while some people don't believe they are worth going back on the computers, other people from medical facilities within the Federation believe because they've had outbreaks of them. Believe they should be put back on the computers. So, the first one is. Schistosomiasis.” Ilyce Savage broke the silence, since both the Marine CO and Executive were in the room. “Also known as Bilharzia or Snail Fever. Schistosomes are parasitic worms of which there are five species that affect Humans. These worms carried in freshwater snails were discovered in 1851 by a pathologist called Theodor Bilharz, after whom the disease is named.”

“How did the patient come in contact with it?” One of the marines, that made up the Rescue Retrieval Recovery Team asked, “It's not as if we have snails sliding the walls.”

“Water becomes infected when infected people excrete into it. The eggs hatch and make their way into freshwater snails, where they infect swimmers by penetrating the skin. They grow inside the blood of the hosts, produce eggs some are excreted by the host and can find their way into new hosts by penetrating their skin. The eggs that remain in the original host build up and cause damage to the tissues of the intestines, bladder and other organs. Because there haven't been many major outbreaks in areas outside tropical and subtropical regions such as South and Central America, Africa, Asia and Southeast Asia, it isn't something that general medical is looking for and expecting. As at 2016 there are an estimated 200 million people infected on Earth, and with space travel now an everyday experience that number has increased. That means snails don't have to be sliding along the walls for people to catch it.”

“So, there's no cure? I tried to look up some of your lecture topics on the Ship's computers, but all I got was that it was extinct.” Marine Physician Pullabooka Davis stated.

“We're aware that there is missing information in all of Starfleet's computers, new manuals are currently being written as a lot of previously extinct diseases are coming back, which means new manuals. You will be issued with larger storage PADDS, and you'll be able to transfer the associated information from the computers to your new PADDs. Think of each lecture as pages of new manuals.” Ilyce answered. “Now where were we?”

“A rash will appear a few days after being infected, however the rash may not be picked up or even reported. The longer a person is infected the more unwell they will feel, and logic dictates they would report it, however it is difficult to estimate how many people die from it, because the complications that lead to death will often disguise a diagnosis of schistosomiasis. The answer to your question Davis is will modern drugs replacing drugs such as Praziquantel, Oxamniquine and Metrifonate kill the worms and undo the damage the disease has done, no, in most cases only those who don't come forward at the first rash stage will die.”

“Won't an autopsy give a diagnosis?”

“No.” Ilyce continued. “Most autopsies are done after a period of time has passed, which is to the benefit of the worms. Tricorders are not programmed to pick up the eggs or the worms. We're talking about a disease which was identified in 1851, many areas of the medical and science fraternity believe its dead or no longer in existence. That along with the fact they forget about histories infectious diseases, and automatically believe they are no longer a threat, only adds to the death toll. The fact we had eight cases on the USS Bonnells Bay, gave us a reason to do blood tests and identify one hundred and seventy two other infected cases, all of whom are now on one of the newly created drugs.”

“There was one hundred and seventy two infected people on the ship?”

“And while we no longer produce drugs such as Praziquantel, Oxamniquine and Metrifonate, we have found their genetic make up, and pharmacists are attempting to duplicate them.”

“Attempting?”

“Attempting.” Ilyce nodded. “They all have missing ingredients, that so far we've been unable to produce, nor have we been able to find any current drugs which match the missing ones. Basically, our historical historians used too many antibiotics for conditions they didn't need to use antibiotics for. Now, despite what UFOP and Starfleet says, diseases which were extinct are coming back, and what was used to deal with them aren't available too us. Which is why you're all going to be the first on the ship to be tested. For anyone who has a blood phobia, grit your teeth, because since our tricorders aren't programmed for these so called extinct conditions, you'll have blood taken and the samples would normally go to the science labs. However, they are all going to my lab and I'll be testing them the old way.”

“And if anyone has it?”

“We are going to try a variety of drugs that we have. I never said my lectures were going to be nice.” Ilyce answered.

“If we have it, do we get told?”

“If you want to be told. We found on BB that there were only eight cases, who had organ damage.”

MCO Captain Daytona Savage

Marine Executive Officer 2nd LT Thomas Summers

Marine Chief Instructor 2nd Lt Ilyce Savage

Master Sgt Flann Read