Name: Immunoboost Implant AKA: FEV Vaccine, Built In Bio-lab Description: A small cylindrical tube, beige in color, attached directly to the spleen. Abilities: -Prevent a single strand of FEV infection, progression (within limits), and transmission at a time -Acts quickly. When activated, a significant number of cells will be modified to act against the pathogen within a day Conditional Abilities (Optional): -Can functionally prevent/cure any pathogen that it is coded to prevent, at least in concept (the FEVs it targets are a prime example, as it cures them if activated with the correct configuration before the point of no-return) -Atlas variant comes with Nexus controls and an app for easy purchase and downloading of safe and functional instruction sets from a 'Immunoboost Market'. Limitations: -Can only prevent one particular pathogen at a time -If the FEV is particularly far along (past the 1-week ‘no return’ point in the non-implant procedure) than the device will not succeed, and will instead make the patient very sick as the immune system attacks the rest of the body (all the infected cells). Conditional Limitations (Optional): -Not an ideal solution for all ailments. Some examples include 'cancer' and 'multiple different FEV infections at the same time' -Atlas/Official-brand variants have security measures preventing any downloads outside of the official market -Bootleg/Off-brand variants do not necessarily have the same level of security. Downloading grey-market instructions could lead to a virus giving you a virus, or just outright killing you. -Each individual pathogen that the implant acts on must be developed, downloaded, and activated -Deactivates under EMP conditions (though if it was already functional for a period of time, this won’t suddenly compromise immunity, and it reboots on its own within CRP timescales) -Immunity disappears after a week of either disabling the implant or selecting a different pathogen to protect from How does it work: The implant functions by taking in some amount of standard immune cells, modifying them to properly respond to the pathogen, and then returning to the body. This is a standardization of the common treatment for FEV infection, bearing distinct similarities to the CAR-T treatment, in that it generates necessary antigens and T-cells to respond to the specific programmed pathogen. No new technology is actually used in the implant. Instead, development was focused on minimizing the standard curing procedure. What generally was very expensive and required a full lab has been minimized down to fit inside the implant. Once installed, it is digitally accessed to select which pathogen it should be responding to at any time. However, it can only be relied upon for one specific strain at a time- and the immunity it grants will go away as the modified cells die. While the technology was developed specifically to protect against FEVs, which require this level of intensive response, it is also capable of protecting against a wide range of other pathogens if properly programmed and proper background research is done to develop the instructions. Flavor text: Years of development into treatments for FEVs resulted in expensive but effective treatments. In April of 3288, a joint program between select Havenite and Atlas medical professionals (Dr. Fux and Dr. Yaretzi were the two at the head of the project) were funded by the Calypsonian government to develop a cheap, effective treatment for FEVs. Specifically, the vampyre virus. The project succeeded beyond their wildest dreams- a medical implant which can be programmed to treat nearly any pathogen. In May 3289, the first safe prototypes passed their trials, and moved into production at Calypso Medical, then to the open market. As per the program’s design, they are affordable. A single implant can be purchased for 200 px, coming with auto-doc instructions for easy insertion and coming in a variety of sizes and versions for organics of all shapes and sizes. With the September 3288 outbreak of the vampyre virus in Rendera, the implant was released directly into a wanting market. Referenced Technologies (Optional): Attainability: Open (there are no stipulations on purchase, and because of the nature of the technology, there are bound to be non-Atlas bootlegs for both the device and the software used to operate it) Tags: Civilian Category: Medical
I have one question about this. Possibly more later though as we continue discussing it. The immune system is pretty good at killing things, but sometimes it's too good at it, resulting in a lot of collateral damage even if it knows exactly what it needs to get rid of. Some diseases even primarily kill indirectly through an overactive immune system. If someone were to catch a virus that tends to be lethal through an overactive immune response, say, by prompting the creation of too many antibodies or too focused of an attack on a specific, vital organ, would this implant merely result in a much earlier death than usual for the person since it mounts a quicker defense, or would the production of antibodies be controlled to prevent that?
That would depend on how the implant was programmed. Given that it has to be fed instructions from a lab, probably not- though someone malicious could release bad code that did this. The implant CRISPR-mods immune response cells to train them to efficiently target and eliminate a single pathogen. So, the programmed instructions might be altering immune cells to not target healthy ones to combat it. Because it only protects against one pathogen at a time, it's probably not the go-to solution for the type of illness you're describing. It's first and foremost a preventative measure, so if you get sick with something while you have this in, it might not be the brightest move to change the controls on your implant instead of, say, going to a hospital.
Made a few minor edits, swapping the term 'virus' for 'pathogen' when discussing the general applications and specified FEV where relevant. Added a short paragraph to how it works to include discussion of the general use.
Alright, so to clarify, you still want to go to a doctor for anything that would require this implant to be reconfigured, for them to do so? I presume there would be some level of safety features to avoid patients or malicious third parties from killing people with these implants (usually), right? One suggestion that was discussed is a sort of magnetic port just under the skin that a doctor would need to press a similarly magnetic 'key' against in order to access the implant for configuration. Does that sound fair? Obviously cheap knockoffs or different brands of this device or something for example may differ, but I just want to be sure you had this sort of variety in mind prior to it being put in the setting.
