Teplan Blight

A visible effect of the Blight

The Teplan blight was a disease introduced into the Teplan population by the Jem'Hadar in response to the population's resistance to the Dominion.

The main visible characteristic of the disease was a series of dark spider-like veins and lesions on the skin, which turned red during the "quickening" or terminal stage of the condition. The disease was caused by a virus. According to Dr. Julian Bashir, differences in physiology between Teplans and other species prevented the contraction of the disease by non-Teplans.

Sufferers of the blight were treated by Bashir on his visit to the Teplan homeworld in 2372. Unfortunately, he learned too late that the Dominion had anticipated modern medical treatment of the disease; the blight was engineered to accelerate through the quickening stage when exposed to electromagnetic fields, including those generated by Bashir's medical devices. As a result, his patients went into agonizing convulsions and begged their resident caretaker, Trevean, for euthanasia.

The Teplan blight virus

However, while delivering one dying patient's child Bashir discovered that an antigen he had administered had prevented the unborn child from contracting the blight. Thus, while the antigen was not a cure for existing sufferers, by initiating a vaccination program the population would be able to eliminate the disease in subsequent generations. (DS9: "The Quickening")

In 2375 Bashir gave a lecture on the disease at a joint Federation-Romulan conference held on Romulus. While there, the chairman of the Tal Shiar, Koval, asked Bashir if the virus could be replicated and introduced into a population, with a view to developing a biogenic weapon.

During one of his lectures at the conference, Bashir explained that in the terminal stages of the disease the lesions become necrotic and there is an increase in leukocyte (white blood cell) function. (DS9: "Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges")

Background

In "Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges", Koval referred to the blight as "the Quickening", terminology that was then reiterated by Bashir and Luther Sloan. This may have been a nomenclature error on the part of the episode's writers, or may indicate that the blight became popularly known by that name by 2375. In the same episode Bashir also stated twice that he had identified the pathogen on Boranis III; this was also likely an error on the part of the writers, because Boranis III was mentioned in "The Quickening" as another world on which Bashir had previously cured a plague but it was not implied at the time that this earlier plague was related to the Teplan blight.