MAGICAL BUGS AND POTION AND PLANT POISONING

Magical Bugs

Dragon pox
Just like muggles (and wizards!) can catch chicken pox without going near a chicken, it is not necessary to have been near a dragon to catch dragon pox. Despite its fearsome-sounding name, it is not usually extremely serious or fatal. The date of its first appearance is debated, but was certainly around in the 1100s, although it was perhaps not officialy recognised until 200 years later. There was no cure until Gunhilda of Gorsemoor developed one in the late 1500s or early 1600s.

Being a 'pox', the main symptoms are spots, more technically termed vesicles or pustules. The affected witch or wizard will likely also have a fever and feel quite unwell. The bacterium that causes dragon pox is very contagious, making it quite common, especially in places where a lot of people congregate, like schools, and particularly in the winter when people more likely to stay inside and cough over each other. Most witches and wizards are infected during childhood, but it is not uncommon to see adult patients also.

If a witch or wizard with dragon pox needs the attention of a healer, the cure developed by Gunhilda of Gorsemoor is still in use, as luckily the bacterium responsible for the infection has not developed any resistance to it. This cure takes several days to work completely, much like muggle antibiotics, and the patient may need to stay for a few days to a week until their fever has reduced.

Scrofungulus
This is an infection of the lymph nodes, and is caused by fungus. Much less common than dragon pox, it is more serious. All patients with this condition will be very unwell with fever, and possibly sickness and a rash, and will need to be hospitalised. The best treatment is regular blood-purifying potions that cleanse the blood and lymphatic fluid, helping to 'wash out' the fungus from the lymph nodes and kill the spores and hyphae. It is not known how people become infected with scrofungulus, but it is likely that contact with animals and/or other infected people may be involved.

Spattergroit
Spattergroit causes unsightly spots to develop on the infected witch or wizard's face. Although not serious or life-threatening, it can be very distressing and disfiguring. The infection generally resolves over the space of about two to three weeks, but for the impatient, the following 'remedy' exists: "take the liver of a toad, bind it tight about your throat, stand naked at the full moon in a barrel of eels' eyes" (OotP chapter 23).

Vanishing sickness
As its name suggests, this infectious condition causes all or parts of the patient to vanish. The patient should be kept in isolation, since this is very infectious and prone to causing people much distress and possibly hysteria. Treatment is by using conjuring spells to 'transfigure' and thus restore the affected body parts. In the case of total vanishment this is understandably more difficult, and the isolation rooms of the ward are specially adapted to limit this as much as possible, and to 'link' the patient to the room so that they can be conjured back. Vanishment may recur repeatedly for up to a month, since there is no way of eradicating the infection from the body - the patient's immune system is the only effective treatment. As long as no total vanishment occurs, the patient may be allowed home when their condition stabilises, as long as someone else at home is competent in conjuring spells.

Potion & Plant Poisoning - rashes, regurgitation, uncontrollable giggling etc

Many potions and plants can cause 'poisoning', either when the victim drinks or eats the offending substance, or if it comes into contact with their skin. This could be either because the potion or plant is actually poisonous or harmful, or because the person is allergic to an otherwise harmless substance.

In many ways, the effects of poisoning in witches and wizards are very similar to those in muggles - the patient might feel sick, sleepy, have a rash, or be in pain. In other ways, magical poisoning can have unusual effects, largely due to the unusual ingredients witches and wizards come into contact with. It would be quite uncommon to find a muggle giggling uncontrollably as a result of poisoning, although it does occasionally happen. Other cases of 'poisoning', simply involve strange or uncharacteristic behaviour of the victim and/or his or her body parts. An unusual form of plant 'poisoning' is unconsciousness caused by the cry of a young mandrake. Unfortunately there is nothing to be done for this - your patient must sleep off the effects.

As a healer, your first priorities when seeing a poisoning victim are to find out what has caused the poisoning, and to treat the symptoms. Sometimes your patient will be able to tell you exactly what has happened to them, and other times, they or their family either will not know or are not able to tell you. In most cases, the poisoning is an accident - a home-made potion brewed incorrectly, a child drinking a potion meant for cleaning the floor, or magical herbs and fungi incorrectly identified when being collected in the wild.

Rashes in poisoned patients are often very helpful in identifying the poison. Rashes tend to be distinctive in colour and pattern, depending on what plant or other substance is responsible. The general symptoms might also help you in your diagnosis, at least in narrowing down the possibilities - not all poisons make people sleepy, or giggly, or cause them to regurgitate whatever they have eaten. In other cases, it will be very obvious to you, for example, the victim of a swelling solution will have distinctive symptoms, as will someone affected by a love potion.

The easiest treatment, in cases of poisoning where your patient's life is in danger is, of course, to use a bezoar. Other antidotes exist to various poisons and harmful plants and potions, for instance, to the swelling solution, forgetfulness potions, love potions, and even veritaserum. Sometimes an unusual potion may cause poisoning, and in this case you must be prepared to use Scarpin's Revelaspell to deduce the components of the potion and develop an effective antidote.