Lexicon:Revival
This page is a part of the Infection Lexicon. The information here is fan-created and should not be considered in-game canon. Please do not edit this page unless you are certain that the Lexicon has been completed.
Agent 50, as some people are calling the virus responsible for the Malton situation, represents a totally new paradigm of epidemiology. The concept of a virus whose host aggressively spreads the virus through violence is nothing new—rabies is known to take advantage of this mode of infection. However, this is the first time such an infection has grown to epidemic levels in humans. The Crowbank Medical Disaster drove home the point that standard quarantine procedures are no longer sufficient. New protocols must be devised to deal with similar viruses in the future.
I'd like to examine what little we know about the reanimation process and the end-stage subjects of this phenomenon.
Agent 50 is a retrovirus apparently developed by NecroTech for purposes that were hinted at in the Committee's previous report. Its operational mechanisms are far beyond the current "cutting edge" of biological engineering—how NecroTech could have created such a virus is as great a mystery as why they would have. The virus inserts its RNA into the mitochondria of a host organism, and upon the organism's death, the mitochondria mutate into an anaerobic form. The mutated mitochondria continue to manufacture ATP without the use of oxygen (how this happens, we're still not sure), permitting a functional, if extremely primitive, level of brain and neuromotor activity. The host continues to seek food in the form of warm-blooded organisms, spreading the virus via bites.
It is important to note here that the bites do not cause zombification—death does. The bites only make zombification possible. The idea that the virus itself is fatal has become unfortunately widespread, since most deaths in Malton over the course of the epidemic have been caused by bite-related injuries and bacterial infections.
I would also like to note that while the initial infection was airborne, the virus itself is not normally transmissible by air. Air samples taken within Malton between September 2005 and now have shown no trace of Agent 50, at least in the studies to which I have been allowed access. The outbreak may have been caused by an accidental release of weaponized pathogen similar to the Sverdlovsk Incident.
Dr. Liam Preston, Royal College of Surgeons
References:
X1M43 08:39, 24 April 2007 (BST)
