My disease would be called the Red Death. The host it would infect would be red fire ants. The symptoms would include internal bleeding, respiratory failure, insomnia, fever, and cysts that would explode and increase the rate of infection of the disease. The genome would be a RNA one so it can mutate faster. The reservoir host, red fire ants, would naturally be born with the Red Death and be immune to it so they would not die off unless humans killed them off with pesticide. The red fire ants would transmit the Red Death to humans through biting them and contaminating crops by building colonies in the crops and leaving ant urine and feces in them, infecting the food humans eat. Once the Red Death has infected a human, it spreads to other humans through bodily fluids and cysts exploding causing the disease to spread through air transmission, getting into humans respiratory systems. Once a human gets it they don't live very long, they live up to a max capacity of seven day. The human host would eventually die of lung failure, internal bleeding, insomnia, and deadly fever. The virus could be stopped by wiping out the entire red fire ant population through pesticide and keeping humans quarantined immediately since it doesn't spread. The cure for humans would be injecting sterilized armadillo blood, since the natural predator of red fire ants is an armadillo and it would counteract the Red Death the red fire ants would be spreading to humans.
Connor, this is a disease that I would not want to have, those exploding cysts sound like something out of a scary movie! I think that The Red Death is a perfect name for this. I feel like this should be the name for any red fire ant bite, Hahaha. I am all for wiping out the entire population of red fire ants! I had no idea that armadillos were the red fire ant’s natural predator, how cool. I have always just heard that armadillos carry leprosy, do you think that injecting a human with blood from an armadillo could infect them with leprosy?
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Connor, your disease, the Red Death sounds very interesting. The disease sounds very brutal and painful and anyone that had to endure this would be absolutely miserable. So a question I have about this disease is when a person gets infected, how long does it takes for the symptoms to start taking action? I think it is very cool how a cure for the disease is armadillo blood. What would happen if the predators of armadillos started killing them off too quickly and so the armadillos became extinct? Also, the cysts that people would get because of this disease sounds excruciating and I would never wish anyone to have.
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Hi Connor, your virus is very fascinating but also sounds brutally horrible. You came up with a perfect name for this virus. I feel like every ant bite feels like death honestly. I hate getting bitten by them. I hope this virus never becomes a thing because I wouldn’t want to catch it. I love how you used red fire ants as your host animal. It’s so unique and interesting. I had no idea the armadillo was the natural predator of fire ants, that’s so cool. Is sterilized armadillo blood the only cure for humans? Also couldn’t humans get an infection from the armadillo blood if it wasn’t sterilized or clean?
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