Could you successfully treat the Knox Infection or recover from it?

[jamer]

For my medical nerds here, I'm curious to see if anyone has an answer to this. The Knox Infection seems to be a neurological condition that starts out with influenza like symptoms but quickly progresses into its classical, more defining characteristics within just a day or two.

Is the Knox infection treatable? And if someone were to have an attempt at treating it, how would they do so without getting themselves infected, and what would they use to treat them?

[Ironwithin]

That's impossible to answer for anybody but the devs because it is a made up disease which can be anything it needs to be as the plot demands.

In the game, signs point to it being untreatable and always leading to death/reanimation as there are hints of it having spread past knox county and attempts to contain/cure it having been unsuccesful.

Also: zombies like in PZ are magic, they are biologically impossible. Human bodies are unbelievably complex bio-machines that break down completely if only very small things go wrong. Don't look too deep into the realism and just suspend your disbelief.

[kasatov01]

Originally posted by Ironwithin:

That's impossible to answer for anybody but the devs because it is a made up disease which can be anything it needs to be as the plot demands.

In the game, signs point to it being untreatable and always leading to death/reanimation as there are hints of it having spread past knox county and attempts to contain/cure it having been unsuccesful.

Also: zombies like in PZ are magic, they are biologically impossible. Human bodies are unbelievably complex bio-machines that break down completely if only very small things go wrong. Don't look too deep into the realism and just suspend your disbelief.

I would strongly disagree with that, human bodies are complex bio-machines that are capable of functioning despite serious malfunctions/serve damage, including serious brain damage, spine damage, loss of limbs etc. Nobody dies due to finger cut.

[Shurenai]

Originally posted by kasatov01:

Originally posted by Ironwithin:

That's impossible to answer for anybody but the devs because it is a made up disease which can be anything it needs to be as the plot demands.

In the game, signs point to it being untreatable and always leading to death/reanimation as there are hints of it having spread past knox county and attempts to contain/cure it having been unsuccesful.

Also: zombies like in PZ are magic, they are biologically impossible. Human bodies are unbelievably complex bio-machines that break down completely if only very small things go wrong. Don't look too deep into the realism and just suspend your disbelief.

I would strongly disagree with that, human bodies are complex bio-machines that are capable of functioning despite serious malfunctions/serve damage, including serious brain damage, spine damage, loss of limbs etc. Nobody dies due to finger cut.

I feel like it's actually the middle ground between the extremes that is truth. Truth is, You absolutely could die to a finger cut...if it's a rusty blade that cut your finger, and you contract tetanus which goes untreated, for example. You could also have your whole bottom half lopped off and potentially survive... And then you could be in recovery and inhale wrong and get a bit of saliva caught in your airway and suffocate to death.

We are simultaneously frighteningly fragile and unbelievably durable creatures.

[Armagenesis]

I mean, if we take Covid as an example, it's probably possible to treat the Knox Infection if it doesn't involve magic mumbo jumbo.
However, there are a lot of stipulations that come with the possiblity.
1. It most likely won't be curable if the outbreak really happened back in the 90s.
2. If the virus was quickly found out and no government cover up ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.
3. If some of the populace don't act like complete moron like during Covid.

And even if the infected can get treated, I can imagine the plot from The Cured to happen for real as well.

[jamer]

From what I know, drugs for treatment of viruses like HIV were made before the 90's. Their technology would be relatively good enough for the development of antiviral drugs or investigating infectious diseases.

Also I was mainly thinking about treating the infection before death. If they could "cure" the virus after the person reanimated, then what would happen after seems pretty interesting!

Originally posted by Armagenesis:

I mean, if we take Covid as an example, it's probably possible to treat the Knox Infection if it doesn't involve magic mumbo jumbo.
However, there are a lot of stipulations that come with the possiblity.
1. It most likely won't be curable if the outbreak really happened back in the 90s.
2. If the virus was quickly found out and no government cover up ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.
3. If some of the populace don't act like complete moron like during Covid.

And even if the infected can get treated, I can imagine the plot from The Cured to happen for real as well.

[Armagenesis]

Originally posted by jamer:

From what I know, drugs for treatment of viruses like HIV were made before the 90's. Their technology would be relatively good enough for the development of antiviral drugs or investigating infectious diseases.

Also I was mainly thinking about treating the infection before death. If they could "cure" the virus after the person reanimated, then what would happen after seems pretty interesting!

Originally posted by Armagenesis:

I mean, if we take Covid as an example, it's probably possible to treat the Knox Infection if it doesn't involve magic mumbo jumbo.
However, there are a lot of stipulations that come with the possiblity.
1. It most likely won't be curable if the outbreak really happened back in the 90s.
2. If the virus was quickly found out and no government cover up ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.
3. If some of the populace don't act like complete moron like during Covid.

And even if the infected can get treated, I can imagine the plot from The Cured to happen for real as well.

Again, if we follow recent real life example, we most likely can get vaccination to prevent the viral infection. So, the remaining issue will be what to do with the infected.

[Beltneck]

Yeah, there is a cure for the Knox Infection. With the correct applicator, apply one dose of 12 gauge topically to the cranium.

Heres the lore: https://pzwiki.net/wiki/Knox_Infection

[maeharaprojekt]

We know that The Indie Stone was partly inspired by "Night of the Living Dead" (1968; George Romero and John Russo), other George Romero films, and Max Brooks' books ("Zombie Survival Guide" and "World War Z"). I have gotten the feeling that they (the devs) are also fans of "Return of the Living Dead" (1985), the parody that John Russo produced separately after he and Romero had their falling-out.

"Return of the Living Dead" gave us 2-4-5 Trioxin gas (based on the Vietnam War-era defoliant 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid; aka Agent Orange) as the cause of the zombie outbreak in the film and it is loosely implied to have previously started the events of "Night of the Living Dead."

Now, we do not know whether anything like that is canonical to Project Zomboid but every time I play, I always have these films, and their lore, riding shotgun in the Ford Pinto that is my mind.

[Blackkennedy]

could be like the walking dead where targeted radiation cures the virus.

[Animalman]

Well corpse sickness makes you a zombie, Bit scratch or no bite.
So it does suggest its a virus and not a magic or godlike plague.
So theoretically good nutrition can cure it.

in walking dead its like a necrosis and it spreads quite slowly up the veins and causes the zombification. you can't cure necrosis because its where cells no longer transfer the nutrients to eachother in a pass the parcel type fashion.
Tho with the zombie virus the affeccted cells are becoming independent of the connected body,
and as the necrosis spread teh the entire body turns into a completely different Konglomerat !! of cells and those cells make demand of the nervous system in different way causing the frantic behaviour, aggression and loss of survival instinct.

[8Squirrels]

Well we know that it's a virus, so it's not magical in nature. That also means our zombies aren't undead, but horribly effected living creatures. If anything that makes it much more horrific.

Anyway, getting to the question: the existence of us, the player, suggests there's some immunity to the virus, at least the airborne strain, so the possibility of a cure is 100%. The problem for us in-canon is that the world has collapsed and we're probably not a virologist. Also, without steady power, a clean lab, assistants, peer-review, etc we're going to have a hell of a time making a vaccine.

BTW there's already several mods that have you going through various hoops to make a cure. One of my favorites has you collect samples from super-infected zombies. Pretty fun.

[Regent]

lots of questions to ask before you can start to answer this...

is it actually a virus? is it a Bactria? Is it Fungus?

In terms of the game, I like that there is no cure. Should the game plot have something about a cure? Sure, it could be a red herring or a happen ending. though I expect there is no happy ending planned for this story.

[Nordil(Hun)]

Originally posted by Beltneck:

Yeah, there is a cure for the Knox Infection. With the correct applicator, apply one dose of 12 gauge topically to the cranium.

Heres the lore: https://pzwiki.net/wiki/Knox_Infection

There is a better way. Burn them in holy fire.:)

[Animalman]

Originally posted by 8Squirrels:

Well we know that it's a virus, so it's not magical in nature. That also means our zombies aren't undead, but horribly effected living creatures. If anything that makes it much more horrific.

i agree it explains the blood that they bleed

[8Squirrels]

Originally posted by Regent:

lots of questions to ask before you can start to answer this...

is it actually a virus? is it a Bactria? Is it Fungus?

In terms of the game, I like that there is no cure. Should the game plot have something about a cure? Sure, it could be a red herring or a happen ending. though I expect there is no happy ending planned for this story.

Personally I prefer it without a cure "this is how you died" and all that. The doomed nature of our player-character makes the surviving sweeter. I'm sure there are plenty of others who would prefer a vanilla cure, but I'm cool with it being mod-only