Virus

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Viruses are assorted types of disease, infection or malady which can be contracted and spread around the station. They often come into play via a number of different ways, the most common being random events. Viruses can be detected by using a health analyzer on a person. The readout will indicate the name of the virus, how it spreads, how far the infection has progressed, and what can be done to cure it.

Known viruses

While there are other obscure viruses (mostly limited to admin shenanigans), players are unlikely to encounter them during normal gameplay and they are therefore not included here.

Name Causes
(primary)
Spread Cure Danger Level Effects
Common cold Random event Airborne Sleep, chicken soup Harmless Coughing and sneezing.
Tissue necrosis Unknown Non-contagious Formaldehyde Harmless Skin rotting off, turning into a skeleton. Doesn't cause any permanent damage.
The flu Random event Airborne Sleep, chicken soup Minor Coughing, sneezing, minor toxin damage.
Food poisoning Tainted food Non-contagious Sleep Minor Vomiting, random stuns.
Clowning around Random event Non-contagious Spaceacillin Minor Slowly turning into a clumsy clown. A variant of this virus transforms people into cluwnes instead.
Space madness Random event Airborne Haloperidol Dangerous Loss of sanity.
Berserker Random event Contact Haloperidol Dangerous Swearing, shouting, attacking nearby crew members uncontrollably.
Teleportitis Unknown Non-contagious Electric shock Dangerous Teleporting around randomly, including walls and tiles exposed to vacuum.
MRSA Open wounds Non-contagious Spaceacillin Dangerous Rapidly accumulating toxin and brute damage in later stages.
Robotic transformation Roburger Non-contagious Electric shock Dangerous Minor brute damage, occasional paralysis, turning into a cyborg.
Necrotic degeneration Zombies Contact Styptic powder injection Dangerous Minor toxin damage, occasional paralysis, turning into a zombie.
GBS Unknown Non-contagious Cryoxadone Deadly Toxin damage, exploding into gibs. Rarely, GBS may be airborne. A fake and largely harmless version also exists.
Space AIDS Unknown Non-contagious Incurable Deadly Toxin damage, randomly contracting other diseases.
Grave fever Vampires Non-contagious Spaceacillin Deadly Severe toxin damage, paralysis, death.
Space kuru Cannibalism Non-contagious Incurable Deadly Escalating toxin damage, uncontrollable laughing and seizures, death.

Infection methods

Most contagious viruses spread through two means: airborne and contact transmission. In these cases, the infection vector is external, which means that wearing protective clothing (mostly a full biosuit and internals) will usually protect you from infection. As long as you don't eat or inject yourself with anything strange, you should be safe.

Contact

Contact transmission means that if you touch the infected person in some way, you'll catch the virus from them. This includes bumping into them, accessing their inventory, using any of the empty hand intents (help, disarm etc.) or attacking them. Note that this works both ways in all cases - the infected can transmit the disease to someone else by punching them, or someone uninfected can catch the disease by punching the infected.

Airborne

Airborne transmission just requires you to be near the person. You don't even have to be right next to them, just being within a certain range means you run a high risk of infection. Any gibs or blood spilled by the infected will also be contaminated, so if someone with airborne GBS explodes, going near their remains will get you infected.

Other vectors

The viruses you're most likely to catch are the contagious ones described above, but that doesn't mean you should discount non-contagious diseases as a threat. Consuming spoiled, badly cooked, poisoned or special kinds of foods or drinks can result in an infection, as can being injected with a viral reagent (willingly or otherwise). In these cases, protective clothing won't help you, since the virus is already inside you.

Cures

So, you've been infected with something. What can you do to stop it? This largely depends on the virus itself. Some viruses have a common cure, while others require a unique one that only works for them. If in doubt, trust the information provided by the health analyzer.

Sleep

Simple - just go to sleep somewhere. The virus will recede until it is cured completely. It would probably be best not to go to sleep in a busy area, unless you like getting mugged while you take a nap.

Antibiotics and -psychotics

Go to medbay and ask for an injection of spaceacillin, an antibiotic. Certain diseases can only be cured by the anti-psychotic haloperidol, but other reagents may count as an antibiotic influence. Experiment and find out!

Electric shock

Get zapped by something. The stronger the source, the more likely it is to cure your disease. Power cables, electrified grills and doors, and stun batons may be able to help you here.

Prevention

Much like reality, prevention is often preferable to infection. This can be achieved by wearing protective gear in the case of airborne and contact-transmitted viruses (as described above) or through other means. Resistances can be obtained by curing diseases through their usual means. Not all diseases will grant resistance when overcome, however.

Incurable diseases

Though very rare, some diseases flat out cannot be eliminated. If "cured", the virus will simply re-establish itself some time later, ignoring any resistances you might have. Your only hope of defeating these diseases is to not catch them - once contracted, they stay with you until the end of the round. Death or robotics are the only ways to escape.