Phage transmission.

[Xhiandra]

I'm on a Voyager rewatch, and I just can't figure out how the phage is supposed to work:

- non-Vidiians aren't immune. Klingons might or might not be, as per "Faces", but apparently humans and half-humans/half-klingons aren't, per the same episode. It's implied Klingons are special in that respect, so no other races known to the Vidiians seem to be immune.

- the disease is not genetic, per "Lifesigns".

- the disease has to be extremely contagious to infect a whole population, especially given how deadly it is and given how advanced the Vidiians' medical knowledge is. Airborne transmission is probable, if it was only transmitted through, say, blood, one expects the Vidiians could've contained it.

- yet, characters seem unconcerned about contagion when around Vidiians. And they seem to be right, as no non-Vidiians ever seem to catch it!

I don't see how to reconcile all that.

 

[Angry Fanboy]

I assumed other races were immune.

I thought the Klingon connection was that the Vidiians suspected there was something about Klingon biology that could potentially lead to a cure or immunity for the Vidiians themselves.

 

[Xhiandra]

That's what I presumed as well, prior to this rewatch, but this exchange in "Faces" makes it clear that's not the case:

SULAN: For generations my people have been searching the quadrant for a species immune to our disease in the hope that it would lead us to a cure.
B'ELANNA: And you think Klingons are immune to this phage?
SULAN: I believe your genetic structure has phage-resistant nucleotide sequences, yes. But I needed a pure specimen to be certain. My people do not know it yet, but you are their greatest hope.
B'ELANNA: I will never help you.
SULAN: You are very strong. I can only hope that you will be truly resistant to the phage.
B'ELANNA: And how will you know that?
SULAN: I have infected you.

Also this one, later in Faces:

SULAN: Are you in pain?
B'ELANNA: It's nothing.
SULAN: Remarkable. One of the symptoms of the early stages of the phage is excruciating joint pain. I find it extraordinary that you can endure it. Some who have been infected have been known to die from the agony itself.
B'ELANNA: It's going to take more than an infection to kill me.
SULAN: It appears you are correct. Your body's successfully fighting off the phage. I am overjoyed.

 

[Angry Fanboy]

I'm still not sure.

I'd still take that conversation to mean the Phage can't be transmitted to non-Vidiians without some sort of Vidiian-level technological intervention.

Non-Vidiians being able to catch the Phage through close contact seems like something that would have come up - surely that whole part of the Delta Quadrant would be overrun?

 

[Timo]

Yup, I guess the best we can do is argue that most species are incapable of getting infected, even though they will die in agony if the infection nevertheless happens (in the case of "Faces", via obviously deliberate and artificial means). Their bodies aren't immune to the disease as such; it's just that the mechanism by which the disease first takes root is specific to the Vidiian species.

Or to their culture; the mechanism of infection might be related to the very fact that the Vidiians practice advanced medicine. Perhaps you only get it from having a transporter applied to bits of your body every morning and afternoon? That is, this tech might be the cause rather than the effect of the Phage plight, a cultural practice that kept conventional diseases at bay but then gave rise to this horrid new one.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[MrPointy]

I never figured out how the Phage is spread from Vidiian to Vidiian. I guess it has a high R0 but it doesn't kill people quickly, since it decimated their society but they kept existing for 2,000 years.

 

[Angry Fanboy]

For it to have dominated the society for so long I'd venture it became part of their genetic code - babies are probably born with it and it's passed from generation to generation.

 

[Farscape One]

The origin of the phage and the transmission was a thing I always wondered about, given how long the disease has been in their history.

It might be a slight exaggeration... the phage may have only affected a small colony or island for a few years, become dormant for a couple centuries, mutate, attack a bigger population, cured, mutate, and rinse and repeat for all that time. The current organ harvesting of the Vidiians may only be a decade or two old.

Given how this ravages them, it's the only way I can figure it actually existing that long and the Vidiians haven't become extinct.

 

[Angry Fanboy]

From Memory Alpha:
The disease was highly adaptive to nearly every new form of medical treatment, and adapted so fast that their "immunotechnology [could not] keep up." It consumed the Vidiians, at first disrupting their genetic code, then devouring their body tissues and destroying cellular structures.

So we know the disease arose two thousand years earlier (whether it was always dormant within the species and became active, was introduced somehow or was developed by them and got out into the general population) - and the Vidiians did what they could to fight back against it with medical technology but it was so adaptable they couldn't keep on top of it.