User:Kineticcrusher/pandemicsandbox

The HTE-1 pandemic was a global pandemic of human tremovirus encephalitis 1 (HTE-1) caused by mammalian tremovirus A12 (MTA12). A mutation of a new type of tremovirus first described in 2023, caused by a double reassortment of chicken and turkey tremovirus, allowed for the pathogen to spread to dogs and later humans, which manifested in an initial outbreak in rural Iowa in early March of 2025. The World Health Organization declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on 28 March 2025, and a pandemic on 15 April. Overall, despite laboratory-confirmed cases resting at 986 million, the virus is belived to have infected over two billion individuals - almost 30% of the global population. The death toll was over 750 million, solidifying it as the deadliest pandemic in human history.

The MTA12 virus primarily enters the body through respiratory droplets spread during close bodily contact, although studies have shown that droplets can remaine airborne for hours and spread over drastic distances, which contributed to the pandemic's rapid spread. Common reported symptoms included fever, coughing, headaches, a stiff neck, and muscular pain. In severe cases, symptoms progressed to meningoencephalitis, partial paralysis, seizures, coma, and death. The disease's incubation period is remarkably long - nearly four months in some cases, despite still spreading between people - which allowed for clusters of infection to exponentiate.

The HTE-1 pandemic is notable for fostering heavy social and economic disruption, including a global recession comparable to the 2020 coronavirus recession, similarly triggered by a pandemic. It also led to widespread supply shortage and loss of life, in some cases resulting in the complete abandonment of large cities. Misinformation about the virus propagated through the mass media and, in a series of events similar to the COVID-19 pandemic, fueled racism and xenophobia against those from areas percieved as having high infection rates.

Background
Public attention was first drawn to HTE-1 when health authorities in Iowa reported a cluster of viral meningitis of unknown cause to the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control on March 6th, 2025. An investigation was launched by March 8th, and by the time the outbreak was declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on March 28, there were upwards of 15,500 cases affecting 8 countries.

The index case is believed to have been a worker on a farm with a dog who had recently been reporting symptoms, pointing to the disease most likely having been a mutation of mammalian tremovirus that was able to infect humans. The novel virus, named mammalian tremovirus A12 or MTA12, is closely related to MTA10 and MT06.

The earliest known case is discovered to have fallen ill on March 3rd, 2025, and of the succeeding cluster of cases, most were found to have been connected to the Marshalltown farm. The WHO recognized the outbreak as a pandemic on April 15th of the same year as cases surged in the United States, China, and Australia.

Signs and symptoms
The average incubation period of HTE-1 ranges from two weeks to a record of four months and twelve days,