How to effectively deliver a flu virus that destroys the brains ability to absorb serotonin?
I have an interstellar war in which us humans fight an alien nomad fleet. The aliens begin to lose the war and need something to fall back on. Humanity over many millennia has built star gates(kinda like Star Gate) and has ten colonies. The aliens took one and are using the gate in that system to attack other human colonies. They designed a flu virus that, like the natural flu, spreads through the air, but causes the infected human's brain to lose the ability to absorb serotonin and hypes adrenalin levels, giving it the ability to cause a planet-wide riot on a selected human world.
Since humanity has all but won the war, human ships patrol the star gates for any incoming attacks. Since the gates are so well defended and the alien fleet is so depleted, they don't want to risk trying to break through the blockades. They send a spy with the virus through. At this point, the spy has to figure out how to release it.
The obvious options are infecting swine or earth birds, or directly infecting people. Which has the ability to reach and infect the most people assuming the population densities on this colony are equal to that on modern earth and the locations of the population, like earth, is generally near coasts, rivers, and strategic positions?
It should also be noted that this flu, other than its serotonin-destroying properties, can infect all vectors that H1N1 can infect, as well as being transmitted via contact with infected blood.
What is the best way to introduce this virus into one of the colonies?
This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/11742. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
1 answer
Since the virus is airborne, you could spread it using a chemical fog.
The Tom Clancy book Executive Orders has terrorists using a modified spray can at convention centers to spread a virus.
That would get it out into the general population. Depending on how the symptoms presented, it could be self limiting. You have the initial infection, the victims don't know they are infected, and continue about their lives, touching surfaces, spreading the virus to others. At some point the symptoms become obvious and you have a point where people will quarantine themselves. "I'm not feeling well, so I'm not going to work today". If the symptoms are bad enough population wide, then outside quarantines will be imposed.
For the maximum spread, you'd want a virus with a really really long incubation period, where the symptoms are minimal or non-existant, but the host is still infectious. That way the biggest number of people will be exposed before the first victims begin to show symptoms.
Likewise, other than the serotonin blocking, you'd want the symptoms to be really mild even after the incubation period. The best course would be a virus that doesn't do anything to make people suspect it's there. "Yesterday she was fine, today she's acting really weird and violent."
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