Maucœur
"Take too greedily from the Swamp, and you will find yourself struck down by the hex of a Witch. Only by expelling all you took can you recover your strength."
There is all manner of Flora within the Swamp of Hags, with much of it being not only edible, but staple delicacies for the communities in and around them. However, not everyone knows what to look out for, and certainly don't know the best way to handle it, especially when the swamp gases and elements can stave off the outward signs of rot. Even if a vegetable, fruit, or herb doesn't look to be infected or far-past ripe, it can carry a host of bacteria within it that if ingested can cause intense fever and heart pain. In the past, this was thought to be the work of a Witches hex, hence the name Maucœur, from words meaning Cursed Heart in the Liécrivin1 language of the Vine and Willow people of Atalanta.
1: From French Lie-de-vin meaning Wine Colored and écriture meaning script
Process of Infection
Transmission
Unfortunately, it is very easy to first catch Maucœur. All one has to do is ingest food that has gone rotten, stale, or otherwise past expiration that was exposed to bacteria in the Swamp of Hags. To be fair, it isn't just any bacteria, but a specific host found in the low waters of the swamp fields commonly referred to as Witch Mud, or Boue de Sorcière. Now, it is possible to avoid infection if the food is properly cleaned before consumption, or if the bacteria is removed and boiled out, such as by coring a vegetable. However especially in the past, this wasn't always followed through, and in some cases it isn't even obvious that a piece of flora has the bacteria within them, as the pickling nature of bogs and swamps can keep them looking mostly fresh. Furthermore, some people don't have the resources or fortune to be picky and thorough.
Once Infected
Once someone has the Witch Mud within their system, it's a coin flip as to if it'll take effect or not. In some cases, especially with modern medicine and cooking procedures, it'll be mostly inert or cause uncomfortable diarrhea at the worst. On the other hand, if it's a much further along rot, eaten without any preparation, or for one reason or another not flushed out of the body, it'll begin to spread and infect further. In this state, while it would technically be seen as a stomach infection, that isn't where the worst of the symptoms hit. While it does cause constipation, as the bacteria causes dehydration and misfiring of certain organ controls, the hardest felt symptoms are intense fever caused by the aforementioned dehydration and the body trying to burn out the bacteria, and also intense sharp pains to the heart as the bacteria attempts to grow along the bloodstream after being absorbed in the stomach and intestines. Even with modern medicine, it is still unknown just what exactly it does to ones heart, as it doesn't cause tissue or organ damage, but the spasms that cause the pain are still severe and potentially damaging. Left without proper treatment, and this state can last up to two weeks at least.
Treatment
The best way to prevent suffering from Maucœur is to expel the bacteria. If caught quickly, then you can induce vomiting to expel the bacteria in the stomach, and then drink plenty of clean water, which should leave you with mild symptoms at most. If it has already begun to affect the patient, then inducing diarrhea to essentially purge the intestines is the best way to go. Many doctors will also prescribe antibiotics to help with what's already in the blood stream as well as high-electrolyte water to beat the dehydration it causes. In the most extreme cases, hospital stays are recommended in order to continuously clear through the body, as well as to have medical professionals and cleansing magical healers to work at ridding the bacteria and stop it from growing.
Potential Side/Aftereffects
Even after the storm of ailments have passed, the dehydration caused by Maucœur can lead to a slew of other issues, such as vomiting, cramps, heat stroke, etc. The deep cleaning the intestines have to go through can also potentially cause damage to stomach lining, leading to an increased chance of other stomach bugs or digestive issues in the future, although these can be averted and healed by many magical and mundane healers. In rare cases, those who suffered from Maucœur can see an increase in heart murmurs later in life, even if the bacteria didn't cause any direct tissue damage, but these cases are few and far between.
Maucœur is, historically, non-fatal. While it can mix with pre-existing conditions and be more harmful than usual, it's not the disease itself that leads to death. Even before the dawn of modern medicine, it was unlikely for someone to die from Maucœur, although the pain caused by dehydration and heart spasms will be just as bad. It's no wonder that people used to blame it on the Witches.
History
Maucœur has been known of for many centuries, millennia even. Although few, if any, had the understanding of germ culture and how the exact gaseous cocktail of elements in the swamps preserved the outside of flora while perverting the inside, it was known by the superstitious to be caused by unthinking harvesting from the swamp, and the logical knew the waters of the swamp hid the secret of rot from within.
Both sides, however, blamed the Witches. The former blamed a Witch personally hexing the fool until they expelled all that they took, while the relatively logical claimed that the Witches hexed the water to brew their baleful mud, and that it had no place in a proper body.
Despite the dubious source of the thoughts, they did end up finding the correct treatment method, even if it was less graceful without modern medicine and professional healers. Thankfully, with that advent of Microscrying, Medical Study, and engineering feats brought together from all around Edda, the natural bacterial source of the illness has been found, although superstition is a clingy piece of the past regardless.
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