Teplan Blight
Often referred to as "the Blight", this is a viral disease, characterized by spider-like lesions that appear blue at birth, but redden as death approaches.
It was introduced to the Teplan race by the Jem'Hadar as retribution for not joining the Dominion. Electromagnetic fields produced by modern technology cause a "quickening" of the virus.
Though no cure could be produced, a vaccine was created that protected unborn children and those who hadn't contracted the disease.
The main visible characteristic of the disease is a series of dark spider-like veins and lesions on the skin, which turn red during the "quickening," or terminal stage of the condition.
In the terminal stages of the disease, the lesions became necrotic, and an increase in leukocyte function occurs.
Sufferers of the blight were treated by Dr. Julian Bashir when he visited the Teplan homeworld in 2372. According to Dr. Bashir, differences in physiology between Teplans and other species prevented the contraction of the disease by non-Teplans.
While there, he also learned that the Dominion had anticipated modern medical treatment of the disease, and the virus had in fact been genetically engineered to accelerate (or "quicken") when exposed to electromagnetic fields such as those generated by modern medical devices such as tricorders.
As he spent more time there, Bashir also discovered -while delivering a child- that an antigen he had administered to the pregnant mother had prevented the yet-unborn child from contracting the Blight.
The doctor's treatment became a vaccine, and future generations of Teplans would be protected against The Blight. The doctor also continued to search for a cure for current sufferers, though he apparently never found one.
