PHH88: The Tumor Plague

Location: Mostly eradicated, except for some lab samples.

Status: Inactive, eradicated anomalous disease.

Description and Behavior: The Tumor Plague is an anomalous viral disease that functions as a contagious form of cancer. As an airborne disease, it is mostly spread via particulates in the air originating from infected persons but can also be spread though surfaces. When contracted, the disease has a three-month incubation period and during the last month of the incubation period it becomes contagious. The symptoms that manifest after the incubation period are sweating, nausea, vomiting and excreting blood, and the rapid development of tumors and other growths.

In areas where large outbreaks of the Tumor Plague have occurred, dozens of mysterious men dressed in full body suits made of human skin consistently manifest to harvest the tumors from the still living, never the dead, with what appear to be ceremonial blades. Harvested persons often die from blood loss or contract tetanus on top of the Tumor Plague if they lacked the vaccine. They place the harvested tumors into large burlap sacks, de-manifesting when the sacks are full. It is not known who or what these entities are, whether they are the original cause of the disease or mere opportunists. Regardless, they are likely either fleshsmiths, cannibals, or both.

Fortunately, the Tumor Plague has been officially eradicated through the use of vaccines and good sanitation barring some samples possessed by both government and private labs, including our own. Testing has revealed that the viruses have some level of intelligence, as it has proven nearly impossible to purposefully infect a test subject in order to conduct research on the disease itself. It seems the viruses can figure out when labs want it to infect someone, and so they do not as a self-preservation response. We have had to stage false sanitation protocol failures to trick the virus into infecting our test subjects.

Recommended Actions: In the event that the Tumor Plague manages to re-enter the public by escaping one of the labs where samples of it are kept, please take all precautions necessary to prevent its spread. Most importantly, get the vaccine. While not one-hundred percent effective, and the viruses seem capable of rapidly mutating around it, it is your best shot at not being infected. The Tumor Plague is not as contagious a disease as the flu, but it is highly deadly with a mortality rate of seventy percent when the infected receive early intervention and treatment. Stay home as much as possible. If you are infected with the Plague or suspect yourself to have been in contact with an infected person, isolate yourself immediately and contact a medical professional. Once you start demonstrating symptoms, a team utilizing the proper sanitation procedures can extract you and take you to a designated area for treatment of the Tumor Plague. A separate team can sanitize your previous living space. If the mysterious entities that collect tumors manifest to harvest, you will likely be in no condition to resist them. Attempt to make enough noise to draw nearby persons to intervene, though that is highly unlikely given the circumstances.