EventHorizon

Thank you! This is quite helpful indeed - I'm most grateful! If I may, I will keep lurking on the forum for a while, to read up and educate myself further.

Hello, everyone! First of all, I wish to apologize for stepping into a place where only the medical minds reside. To my relief, though, I’ve noticed that similar events have already occurred on these forums – that is, cases in which a question was asked by a layperson writing a novel with plot points involving viruses or bacteria. That is what I am doing, and I greatly wish to make this plot point seem plausible. I’m not sure if it is possible to mix this particular concept with the rest of the plot to such a point where a biologist would wave it off as actually acceptable… but, hopefully, at least to the point of not having said biologist angrily throw the book across the room. Predictably, the question involves that ever-popular concept in fiction – a dangerous pathogen. Fast, lethal, durable – or, since I’m assuming that nothing of the sort (fortunately) exists, a realistic approximation of the idea. Since the concept is so far very flexible and as distant from being set in stone as can be, I have taken some of the thoughts I’ve had so far, and made them into several questions. - Could a chimera virus, or a chimera bacterium, ever appear naturally, rather than be created artificially? I’m specifically thinking of the viability of having a particularly lethal virus or bacterium that also possesses considerable durability and longevity. (In other words, it would be much like the old “ultimate biological weapon” trope in fiction, except that it would not have been bio-engineered, as the novel needs to take place some 300 years ago… and in a genre where there would be no aliens, time travelers, etc., to conveniently provide sufficiently advanced technology.) - Would you consider the idea of a virus being able to survive dormant for decades as too far-fetched and annoying (especially if it concerned a filovirus)? - In fact, are there viruses or bacteria that could survive for such a lengthy period outside the host (it would be primarily in a permanently hot, humid and dark environment, more or less sealed from the outside)? - Similarly, would you possibly allow for an idea of a natural mutation of a virus / bacterium as an explanation for its extreme longevity, durability, resistance, etc., or would you see it as too cartoonish? - Would you consider the (admittedly often used due to its popular recognition) hemorrhagic fever as the (and hopefully the expression will not be out of place) “pinnacle of fear”, when it comes to the impression it would have on the general, non-scientific population? (Particularly, 300 years ago…) In a nutshell, I’m wondering about a pathogen that would have a devastating psychological effect on laymen witnessing its effects on someone else (in addition to quickly wreaking havoc on them after the exposure, of course) – i.e. it would have a very short incubation period, manifesting itself quickly after the exposure, and it would be terrifyingly destructive. Essentially, something that could be considered more or less realistic, while having the effect of that old cliché of “a man pricks his finger, starts coughing a minute later, and literally falls apart in ten more minutes” on the reader. So… a pathogen that can long stay dormant, yet still infect a character who has been exposed to it. One lethal, but showing its symptoms quickly. Ideally, one that allows for the idea of another character possessing immunity. But is there such a pathogen – or could a fictitious one be justified?