Guide to Virology

Despite measures to sterilise its space stations, pathogens still make their way onto NanoTrasen Space Vessels. Below is a guide on how to deal with them.

Virology 101

The first, and most important way to prevent 99% of infections, it's proper hazard wear, and knowing how to keep the infection from spreading.

Terminology

Virus - An infectious disease, almost always giving negative symptoms.

Infected - Someone who has a virus in their bloodstream.

Symptom - The effect a virus has on the infected.

Pathogen - An alternate name for a virus.

Antigen - A substance that can help create antibodies. Used for immunizing. Is always recorded as two uppercase letters e.g. PO

Stamm - A unique identifying number for an analyzed disease. Is always recorded as a four figure number following a hash e.g. Stamm #1452

Rate of Progression - How fast a pathogen's symptoms manifest, average is 100.

Symptom Strength - how potent the symptom is, only affects certain symptoms, especially ones that deal damage.

Symptom Veroisty - unknown.

Protective Equipment

The following will protect you, from the dangerous infections of space, each giving more and more (till total) protection against infection:

• Level-3 Bio Hood.
• Level-3 Bio Suit.
• Latex Gloves.
• File:White shoes.png Shoes, of better Galoshes.
• Internal air supply including Breath Mask or Gas Mask.

For those not in the medical profession, the following commonly available items will help reduce your chances of infection:

• Any internals hooked up to a tank and activated.
• Gloves.
• Clothes.

Isolation

If you, or another crew member are infected, do not spread the infection further. Seek the isolation bay of the medical wing, or head to a room no one will enter but yourself and other infected.

Cleanliness

Cleaning blood spills from the ground will prevent contact contamination, make sure blood is cleaned from the floor at all time. Any blood splatter out there could hold a dreaded space infection. Contact a janitor if you see blood on the floor, do not interact with the blood if you suspect possible infection chance. You have a bottle of space cleaner in Virology to clean virology itself. If an outbreak gets out, make sure people are cleaning blood.

Mucus caused by infected people sneezing also carries the same problem.

Methods of Infection

The following are the various ways a disease can spread, keep this in mind at all times:

• Airborne - The most dangerous and quick spreading, if you are anywhere within the breathing area of the infected crew member, you have a chance to be infected.

How to prevent - Either Infected or Uninfected must wear internals, preferably both. As soon as an airborne virus is loose, get everyone on internals.

• Contact - Requires you to touch, been touched, or be extremely close to the source of the infection. The infection could be from a blood spill (all blood spills containing contact, or airborne, infections can infect through blood contact).

How to prevent - EVA and Biosuits prevent contact transfer, wearing one, isolate the infected crewmembers in Virology or the isolation ward in Medbay. Warn crew to avoid blood and each other.

• Infection - The infection has been forced into the infected crew member, they are not infectious themselves. The only way to spread these infections, is through getting infected blood directly into another crew member.

How to prevent - The easiest, just be careful of anyone with access to syringes, especially the Virologist. Supervised antigen (cure) creation recommended.

Viruses

Primarily, this is your job. Find a batch of a virus, analyze it, and then produce a cure. You also research and splice new forms of virus.

Equipment

You have a number of machines around virology which help in the both analysing, curing, and research viruses.

• File:Centrifuge.png Isolation Centrifuge - This machine takes vials filled with blood and isolates pathogens or antibodies. It will automatically detect whether a sample of blood contains either, and can be useful for telling which people are infected. It can then isolate the pathogen, producing a virus dish, or isolate the antibody, producing a vial of antibodies.
• File:Incubator.png Pathogenic incubator - This machine takes virus dishes made by the centrifuge, or from the samples in your lab and grows them. It requires diluted milk (virus food) to work however, so ask the Chemist or Chef or use the virus food dispenser in Virology. The machine will ping when the virus reaches a large enough size to be worked with. Radiating the machine may cause the virus to mutate and change one or more of it's symptoms. You can also add a beaker of blood to the machine and infect it with whatever virus dish is currently in the machine.
• File:Analyser.png Disease Analyser - Putting a sufficiently grown virus dish in here will analyse the virus and display the symptoms on a piece of paper and on examining the virus dish. Also allows the Disease Splicer to show what the symptoms you're splicing are. This will also add a virus to the virus database, allowing it to be named and detected by a medical scanner.
• File:Disease splicer.gif Disease Splicer - Each virus has four GNA strands which control which symptoms it causes, and one race strand, which controls who can be affected by the virus. This splicer can isolate one of those strains and store it. This destroys the dish in the process however. You can then save the strand to a disk and transfer it to a different virus dish. This is how you can make your own viruses.

Growing a pathogen (virus) sample

This is how grow a pathogen (virus) on a dish for other uses in Virology.

Requirements

• Virus Dish

Virology starts with three of these in the freezer, more can be found obtained from a Virus Crate.

• Beaker

There are two boxes of beakers in Virology

• Virus Food

There is a Virus Food dispenser on the wall next to the Pathogen Incubator

• File:Incubator.png Access to a working Pathogen Incubator

Process

• File:Incubator.png If the Pathogen Incubator has any radiation in it, flush the system to remove it.
• Fill the beaker with Virus Food.
• File:Incubator.png Place the Virus Food beaker into the Pathogen Incubator.
• File:Incubator.png Insert the Virus Dish into the Pathogen Incubator
• File:Incubator.png Turn on the Pathogen Incubator.
• Once "Sufficient viral growth density achieved" you can eject the dish.

Mutating a pathogen (virus) sample

This is how mutate a pathogen (virus) on a dish to change either a symptom, the affected race, or the contagion type, and is decided completely randomly.

Requirements

• Virus Dish

Virology starts with three of these in the freezer, more can be found obtained from a Virus Crate.

• File:Incubator.png Access to a working Pathogen Incubator

Helpful Optionals

• File:Analyser.png Access to a working Disease Analyzer.

Process

• Insert the Virus Dish into the Pathogenic Incubator.

Virus food is not required.

• File:Incubator.png Add radiation to the Pathogen Incubator, ensuring that the radiation meter turns red.

1,000,000 µSv minimum is recommended as it quickly runs out.

• File:Incubator.png Turn on the Pathogen Incubator.
• File:Incubator.png Once "Mutant Viral Strain Detected", one of the parts of the sample has mutated. Eject the dish.

If you are mutating two samples at once, the way to tell which mutated is the infection rate will read "Unknown" on the Pathogenic Incubator's interface.

• File:Analyser.png Place it into the Disease Analyser to see what has mutated, check it against the previous Disease Analyser report.

Manufacturing antigen (Curing) the entire crew

This is how you cure a breakout of a virus, whether released by Virology, or a random event.

Requirements

• Infected person
• Radium
• File:Vial.png Vial

File:Vialbox.png You can find vials in a storage box on the table in Virology.

• Syringe
• Beaker
• File:Centrifuge.png Access to a working Isolation Centrifuge

Helpful optionals

• Antibody Scanner
• Anti-toxin / Dylovene

Process

• Inject affected individual with Radium.
• Wait a while, then scan with Antibody Scanner.

If the infected individual has not formed antibodies, then wait longer.

Take care to give them antitoxins if they are in danger of dying. Radium is lethal! Only a living patient may form antibodies.

• Once the patient has antibodies, take a sample of their blood with a Syringe.
• File:Vial.png Inject the antibody filled blood into a vial, all 15 units.
• File:Centrifuge.png Insert the blood filled vial into the Isolation Centrifuge.
• File:Centrifuge.png Choose the antigen you require to be isolated. Most of the time there will only be one option here.

This is a good time to cure the infected of their radium poisoning with anti-toxin.

• File:Vial blue.png Once completed, you will have a vial filled with blue antigen (antibodies).
• Inject 5 units of antigen into a beaker, and fill the remainder of the beaker with water.

There are two boxes of beakers in Virology.

You can use the sink in the dressing room of Virology for easy access to water.

• Fill a syringe with the watered down antigen, and inject any affected crew members to make them immune to the disease.

Alternatively, use the paper cups in medbay reception so people can drink the antibodies into their system.

If you require more antigen, take the blood of anyone who has the antigen, inject into a vial, and isolate again.

Immunising individual infected

Note this process is not recommended if there is more than one victim and any chance of spreading.

Requirements

• Infected person
• Radium
• Syringe

Helpful optionals

• Antibody Scanner
• Anti-toxin / Dylovene

Process

• Inject affected individual with Radium.

Take care to give them antitoxins if they are in danger of dying. Radium is lethal! Only a living patient may form antibodies.

• Once the victim's symptoms have subsided, they are cured.

Identifying an unknown pathogen (virus)

Only useful in identifying the symptoms of a virus, and should be conducted after the antigens are being safely handed out after an outbreak.

Requirements

• Infected person
• Syringe
• File:Vial.png Vial

File:Vialbox.png You can find vials in a storage box on the table in Virology.

• Beaker
• Virus Food
• Access to a working File:Centrifuge.png Isolation Centrifuge, File:Incubator.png Pathogenic Incubator and File:Analyser.png Disease Analyser

Process

• Take a sample of the infected's blood with a syringe.
• File:Vial.png Inject the antibody filled blood into a vial, all 15 units.
• File:Centrifuge.png Insert the blood filled vial into the Isolation Centrifuge.
• Choose the stamm (pathogen/virus identifier) you require to be isolated. Most of the time there will only be one option here.
• Once completed, you will have a virus dish,
• File:Incubator.png insert it into the Pathogenic Incubator.
• Fill the beaker with Virus Food from the dispenser in the wall, and insert it into the Pathogenic Incubator.

If the Virus Food vendor is out, Chemistry can mix some.

• File:Incubator.png Ensure there is no radiation in the Pathogenic Incubator, at least 30 units of Virus food, then turn it on.

If there is radiation in the system, flush the system before putting in the virus food.

• File:Incubator.png Once the incubation is finished, the machine will ping "Sufficient viral growth density achieved.".
• Eject the virus dish from the Incubator.
• File:Analyser.png Insert the fully cultivated dish into the Disease Analyzer.
• After a short wait, the virus dish will be ejected, along with a piece of paper listing the symptoms.

The pathogen/virus will be added to the station's database to be viewed from medical laptops.

See below for what each symptom's effects are.

Splicing

Viruses have multiple parts:

• #Stamm (unique identifying number, whether known or not).
• Infection Type (Airborne, Contact, Direct)
• Affected Races
• Antigen
• Symptom 1
• Symptom 2
• Symptom 3
• Symptom 4
• Rate of Infection

The parts of the virus listed in Bold can be reverse engineered using the Disease Splicer. Doing so destroys the virus sample. You can only retrieve one sample from a dish, you were warned.

This reverse engineered GNA strand is saved on the local memory of the Disease Splicer. The machine can only hold one GNA strand in it's memory, but they can be saved to a disk, and each disk has infinite uses.

Using the disks and reverse engineering is how you "save" the desired parts of a virus for future use. The Disease Splicer can overwrite the information on a virus sample as well, and this does not destroy the sample, enabling you to create your own customised virus. Inserting a GNA strand disk into the Disease Splicer overwrites the currently stored GNA strand information without warning.

Note how the Antigen, Infection Type and Rate of Infection cannot be reverse engineered. This means that you need a base virus dish with these desired parts to overwrite with your GNA strand disks.

Advanced Virology

You may have already realised that with the three samples you start with, the best you can hope to develop is two GNA strand disks, and one base viral sample. This does not mean however you cannot make your own customised virus.

There are a few features of Virology which you must first understand:

• A virus sample which has not been processed through the Disease Analyser (or more accurately, is not on the station's virus database) will not show a green infected icon in a medical HUD. This will be referred to as an unrecorded virus.
• If you take the blood of someone who is infected with an unrecorded virus, inject it into a vial and place into the Isolation Centrifuge (see: #Manufacturing_antigen_(Curing)_the_entire_crew) The unrecorded virus' Stamm number will be displayed. Selecting this will produce a virus sample. You can create multiple virus samples from one unidentified dish, which can be grown and irradiated. It will have the exact same information in the virus dish as the virus in the blood. This will be referred to as unrecorded virus cloning.

Now, let's run through an example shift where you want to obtain all the beneficial GNA strands (symptoms) on disk, from a single virus sample.

• Grow the virus sample, irradiating it until it mutates once so it is a new, unknown and unrecorded virus.
• Infect a syringe of blood with the unrecorded virus. Do not analyse it.
• Inject the blood into a vial, and insert it into the Isolation Centrifuge.
• Isolate the unknown Stamm multiple times to produce at least four dishes. This is unrecorded virus cloning.
• Irradiate these virus dishes in turn, until they mutate to give the GNA strand symptom you desire by analysing after it mutates.

This step can take a lot of time irradiating and disease analysing

• Reverse engineer and save to disk each virus sample in the Disease Splicer.
• You now have the four GNA strand symptoms you originally wanted, plus the original dish to clone more virus samples from.

Symptoms

These are all the symptoms and their effect:

Stage 4

Gibbingtons Syndrome: Gibs the infected lifeform.

Radian's Syndrome: Deals radiation to the infected lifeform.

Dead Ear Syndrome: Deafens the infected lifeform

Monkism Syndrome: Turns the infected lifeform into it's monkey version if it has one, otherwise it gibs.

Suicidal Syndrome: Causes the infected lifeform to attempt suicide.

Toxification Syndrome: Deals toxin damage to the infected lifeform.

Reverse Pattern Syndrome: Increases the body temperature and deals clone damage to the infected lifeform.

Shutdown Syndrome: Disables the limbs of the infected lifeform.

Longevity Syndrome: Heals the lifeform of organ damage, deals damage if cured, ages the lifeform by 8 years.

Greater Magnitis: Causes the infected lifeform to pulls anything not bolted down and all silicon units within 6 tiles of the infected lifeform towards the infected lifeform.

Kingston Syndrome: Turns the infected lifeform into a Tajaran, will kill certain lifeforms due to too great biological differences.

Spontaneous Cellular Collapse: Causes the infected lifeform to produce polynitric acid and slowly break down.

Necrosis: Melts the flesh or exteriors of the infected lifeform and turn them into a skeleton.

Fizzle Effect: Gives the infected lifeform a sore throat and the sniffles.

Arachnogenesis Effect: Causes the infected lifeform to vomit up spiderlings.

Biolobulin Effect: Gives the infected lifeform the ability to projectile vomit unstable goo.

Toxin Sublimation: Causes the infected lifeform to randomly create plasma gas.

Stage 3

Fragile Bones Syndrome: Causes the infected lifeforms bones to break.

Hyperacidity: Deals toxin damage to the infected lifeform.

World Shaking Syndrome: Causes the infected lifeform's vision to shake.

Telepathy Syndrome: Gives the infected ability of telepathy.

Lazy Mind Syndrome: Causes the infected lifeform to take braindamage.

Hallucinational Syndrome: Causes the infected lifeform to hallucinate.

Hard of Hearing Syndrome: Gives the infected lifeform bad hearing.

Uncontrolled Laughter Effect: Causes the target to laugh.

Topographical Cretinism: Causes confusion in the infected lifeform.

DNA Degradation: Causes the infected lifeform to take clonedamage.

Groaning Syndrome: Causes the infected lifeform to groan.

Lesser Magnitis: Causes the infected lifeform to pulls anything not bolted down and all silicon units within 4 tiles of the infected lifeform towards the infected lifeform.

Hyper-perspiration Effect: Causes the infected lifeform to sweat.

Elvisism: Turns the infected lifeform into Elvis.

Pierrot's Throat: Gives the infected lifeform a clownmask, produces spacedrugs, and causes the lifeform to Honk.

Horse Throat: Gives the infected lifeform a horsemask, causing the target to Neigh.

Space Adaptation Effect: Allows the lifeform to survive in space naked, and makes the lifeform almost immortal.

Shutdown Syndrome: Disables the limbs of the infected lifeform. (This is the only symptom which currently can occupy more than one stage)

Stage 2

Loudness Syndrome: Causes the infected lifeform to scream.

Automated Sleeping Syndrome: Turns the infected lifeform drowsy.

Resting Syndrome: Causes the infected lifeform to collapse.

Blackout Syndrome: Turns the infected lifeform blind.

Anima Syndrome: Gives the infected lifeform a cough.

Appetiser Effect: Makes the infected lifeform hungry.

Refridgerator Syndrome: Causes the infected lifeform to shiver.

Hair Loss: Makes the infected lifeform bald.

Adrenaline Extra: Produces hyperzine for the infected lifeform.

Glasgow Syndrome: Gets the infected lifeform drunk.

Gaben Syndrome: Turns the infected lifeform fat.

Bearding: Makes the infected lifeform grow a beard.

Uncontrollable Bowel Syndrome: Gifts the infected lifeform with diarrhea.

Intranasal Hemorrhage: Gives the infected lifeform a nosebleed.

Respiratory Putrification: Causes to infected lifeform to cough blood.

Lantern Syndrome: Causes the infected lifeform to glow.

Stage 1

Coldingtons Effect: Gives the infected lifeform a cold.

Flemmingtons: Causes Mucous to run down the back of the infected lifeforms throat.

Saliva Effect: Causes the infected lifeform to drool.

Twitcher: Causes the infected lifeform to twitch.

Headache: Gives the infected lifeform a headache.

Itching: Causes the infected lifeform to get an itch.

Drained Feeling: Makes the infecte lifeform feel drained.

Watery Eyes: Causes the infected lifeform's eyes to sting.

Wheezing: Causes the infected lifeform to wheeze.

Full Glass Syndrome: Makes the infected lifeform optimistic with tricordazine.