My infectious disease is called the Sciurus virus. Sciurus is the genus name for squirrel and is derived from two Greek words, skia, meaning shadow, and oura, meaning tail. The disease can live dormant in the squirrels for their entire lives. Squirrels are the reservoir host of the Sciurus virus and carry the disease without being symptomatic. I chose squirrels because of how common they are here in the United States.
Sciurus is an DNA virus with symptoms that include: fever, fatigue, vomiting, diarrhea, and stomach pains.
Sciurus can spread from the reservoir host (squirrels) to humans, but humans would have to have direct contact with an infected squirrel. More commonly, Sciurus is a virus that is most commonly spread from squirrels to the most common house pet, a dog. The dogs would then infect their owners. It is common for dogs to chase down, kill, and even eat squirrels, and this is how the infection is passed from the squirrel to the dog. After ingesting the squirrel, the dog would fall ill with almost the same symptoms as humans (vomiting, diarrhea, fatigue) within 2-3 days, and will die from dehydration in a week. While the dog is ill, the human is then exposed to the infection from caring for it and having it inside their home, and will fall sick within a week, and could die of dehydration within one more week. Once a human is infected, it is like a bad case of the stomach virus and can be passed from human to human. The virus can only live in a human’s body for 21 days. While there isn’t a vaccine to prevent Sciurus, it can be treated with lots of fluids and quarantining the patient.