[quanaco]

So, in recently perusing  Parazoology 2, I was struck the entry for nanoplasmosis, the Awakened form of toxoplasmosis. This particular microorganism eats soft nanites and emits a jamming field that interferes with nanite functioning. As far as I could tell toxoplasmosis wasn't mentioned in Stolen Souls or elsewhere in talking about its potential interaction with CFD.

It seems to me that this would be a tailor-made solution for CFD. While CFD does provide disease resistance, an Awakened microorganism could conceivably weather this resistance in the short term. Once able to get a toehold in the system, it would find plenty of food in the soft nanites, and could disable the hard nanites with the jamming field. Within a few weeks the hard nanites would be disposed of by natural elimination. And as far as damage to the host goes, according to the entry in Parazoology 2, the only damage was that to nanite systems.

While I realize Parazoology 2,  didn't sell as much as the core releases, this is a very recent release. It isn't some obscure bit of SR lore from a 90s fiction piece. Heck the PDF was released after the release of the Storm Front and Fifth Edition PDFs. I know lore sometimes gets dropped between editions but this feels far too recent to not be currently canonical. Is this an intentional backdoor out of the CFD storyline? Or just something no one managed to correlate? Or just something we are supposed to ignore because, "Bwahaha super incurable disease ongoing metaplot," is going on here?

[cantrip]

I'm still getting caught up on my reading and haven't finished Stolen Souls yet, but it kind sounds like the process you described could work. The question would be what happens to the host once the nanites are purged? Since the damage is done - you'd be removing the cause of the damage, but not the effect. Blank slate? The CFD personality (or at least copy) stripped of it's abilities?

There are several threads discussing curing - might be some more info in there. Good idea!

I have Parazoology2, but haven't even come close to reading that yet! Darn job and real life and stuff!!!    I'll at least have to check out the section on nanoplasmosis.

[quanaco]

Yeah, any damage done would likely remain, so it'd have to be introduced early on in the infection. And it would kill off any nanosystems the patient had, but that beats losing your body by a long shot. Also, I'm pretty sure getting rid of all the transhuman and nano stuff is kind of the point of the CFD plot (I.E. setting and theme reset from 4th), so not necessarily a bad side-effect.

I tried using the forum search for nanoplasmosis and didn't get any hits, hence the new thread.

[Giabralter]

I would agree that Nanoplasmosis would most likely halt progression as the nanites are destroyed, but the damage would remain.  Parazoology, Parazoology 2, ParaBotany, and Parageology  came at the end of SR4 with the Zoology books picking up the remaining awakened critters that were left out of running wild.

[psycho835]

Could it be used as a vacinnation?

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

Short answer, no.

[MijRai]

Short answer, no.

Long answer, please?  There are various issues nanoplasmosis infestations could cause, if it's anything like toxoplasomosis, but given the threat that Sybil provides,  I think most people would lean towards a protozoan colony in their body that can cause depression or liver damage over their body being hijacked and their mind being wiped for some kind of Ai-esque thing to use as a meat-puppet.  You can replace a liver or take medications for neurological issues.

[Namikaze]

I just wanted to say that because of this thread, I decided to implement some new games into my CFD story arc.  I personally think that this is the closest that we are going to get to a realistic cure that doesn't cause massive problems for the host.  The difficulty of using nanoplasmosis is that it appears to be in the fecal matter of nezumi, which are e-rats.  I'm not sure how e-critters get handled in SR5, so there might be some house ruling that needs to take place.

In any event, I was estimating that if a headcase started to lose their nanites in this way, the personality might try to destroy the host, or it might go completely insane, or it might just be weak enough (or young enough) to die quietly.  I'm estimating that it has a mortality rate of about 35% in headcases, and that number is WAY better than other treatments.  But with the CFD personalities going apeshit during the purge, I figure the social ramifications cannot be overstated.  This sort of treatment should be done in as controlled an environment as possible, but that may not be feasible.  Anyway, my players read these forums so I don't want to spoil anything for them.

Suffice to say that I love this thread. 

[MijRai]

This thread is a good example of how Shadowrun should be;

"Well, there's a nanite techno-virus circulating through the population, and it's taking over the minds of all it infects.  Our solution?  Parasites contained in Emerged rat drek.  Mr. Johnson, please acquire three teams; one to acquire these rodents.  The next will distribute our cure clandestinely.  The last team...  Obviously, they're going to plant evidence that one of our competitors caused the disease in the first place.  Please keep in mind, we do have a schedule."

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

My answer is based off the nature of what a 'vaccine' is.  Nanoplasmosis is more in the nature of an antibiotic - specifically, a counter-infestation.  Use nanoplasmosis to take care of the active CFD vector (whatever alterations have been made are gonna be permanent anyhow), then cure the nanoplasmosis.  It should be effective, yes - but that doesn't make it a vaccine.

[MijRai]

Well, that depends on how the term is used, then.  A 'vaccine' is basically a preventative/immune booster, which nanoplasmosis could be used as if produced in large enough quantities and distributed.  CFD would be unable to build up or gain a footholdin a body already hosting nanite klling protozoans.  It's not the greatest of vaccines, that's for sure, but complications could be treated until a better option comes to light.

[Emperors Grace]

My answer is based off the nature of what a 'vaccine' is.  Nanoplasmosis is more in the nature of an antibiotic - specifically, a counter-infestation.  Use nanoplasmosis to take care of the active CFD vector (whatever alterations have been made are gonna be permanent anyhow), then cure the nanoplasmosis.  It should be effective, yes - but that doesn't make it a vaccine.

Agreed re: vaccine* but I don't see it as an antibiotic parallel, I think it's the equivalent of pre-antibiotic treatment of syphilis with malaria.

The idea was to give malaria (which had a known cure - quinine) to those with syphilis (which didn't).  The high fevers of malaria wiped out the syphilis and then quinine was used to purge the malaria.

Well, that depends on how the term is used, then.  A 'vaccine' is basically a preventative/immune booster, which nanoplasmosis could be used as if produced in large enough quantities and distributed.  CFD would be unable to build up or gain a footholdin a body already hosting nanite klling protozoans.  It's not the greatest of vaccines, that's for sure, but complications could be treated until a better option comes to light.

*vaccines (short version) need to create an immunoresponse so that memory cells may be created to the antigen(s) and the body will react to future infections more quickly.

As (from the thread  descriptions) the nanoplasmosis does not seem to trigger the immunoresponse but merely eats the nano (and then dies off), it can't be an effective vaccine.  If it didn't die off (what would it eat?) or was constantly readministered, it might protect you (similar to blood thinners reducing stroke risk) - but still really wouldn't be a vaccine.   It would be preventative treatment.

In either case, I can't see this being pleasant.  There is also always the risk that constant use in a decent size population might outstrip production ability.  Or scarier yet, lead to the nanoplasmosis organism aquiring the ability to use alternate food sources (you might prevent CFD entirely but suddenly have the nanoplasmosis start eating biological matter...) through adaption.

[Giabralter]

NanoPlasmosis does say it treats nanites like competition....

[DeathStrobe]

NanoPlasmosis does say it treats nanites like competition....

Oh boy, then we can have an awaken version of CFD with awaken bacteria instead of nanites.

[Sendaz]

NanoPlasmosis does say it treats nanites like competition....

Oh boy, then we can have an awaken version of CFD with awaken bacteria instead of nanites.

Welp, never gonna sleep again now...

Thanks DS