Desert Lung

Desert Lung is a disease contracted upon contact with the air of the Asagari Desert for any prolonged period of time.

Symptoms and Causes
Autopsies show that the lungs of the victims literally dry up until they are unable to continue to breathe. According to medical professionals and first-hand accounts, the disease has a very slow incubation time, but death would occur within the week after the first symptoms (coughing and fever) display in the subject. As the disease progresses, breathing becomes more difficult, and the blood becomes more congealed as there is no oxygen in the bloodstream to bind to hemoglobin.

The direct cause is unknown, but Arncoran pathologists suspect that a highly-specialised bacteria is responsible. However, there are too few documented cases for an exact cause to be determined. There is no known cure, and prevention was long-thought to be impossible until recent research provided new hope. Fortunately, it does not seem to be communicable in between subjects. Direct exposure to the desert air seems to be required for transmission.

History
For the most part, the disease is what has kept Arncora from attempting to find the subterranian nation of Istilléa in order to launch a hostile takeover. Any army that the Lord-Commander has sent into the desert has either not come back, or has returned with the disease. Recently, Lord-Commander Perynia Finnin has been sending inmates to the desert to contract the disease for Arncoran scientists to have living subjects to study from in order to determine the nature of the disease and develop methods of prevention.