#pokerus

[a-horde-of-mews]

King: Eh.... Not... Not really.

[pokemonshelterstories]

have you seen the female pyroar with a full “male” mane? is it a hormone thing when that happens?

i haven't personally seen one, but i've read plenty of articles about similar situations. it's indeed caused by hormonal changes! in this case, it's specifically a higher level of testosterone. there's a variety of reasons that a pokemon might experience this. some pokemon naturally experience this under certain conditions; marine pokemon are known to sometimes even flip-flop between sexes. but sometimes it's a genetic condition or injury to estrogen-producing organs. this is what causes some azurill to change sex upon evolution, and it's also likely the reason behind the female pyroar who grew manes. i once read a paper about an unfezant hen who experienced damage to her ovary (many bird pokemon only have one ovary) and started developing a crest

really interesting is that, because pokerus attacks the endocrine system and causes a flood of testosterone, female pokemon will often show signs of transition. a competitive battler in hoenn once realized that his blaziken hen had caught pokerus because she started acting like a cock. really fascinsting stuff!

[ask-pokerus-virus]

Those hair waves dang they're nice

"....."

". . . . ."

"They love me... They really love me..."

"Hahaha... To think that I got so much attention so quickly, it's only been a few days... That must mean they want to... Yes, that must be it!"

"HAHAHAHA! OH, THIS IS TOO PERFECT!!! THIS IS HEAVEN ON EARTH TO BE WORSHIPPED BY REAL PEOPLE! THIS IS SO MUCH BETTER THAN THOSE PIECES OF NPC TRASH! I COULD JUST TEAR OFF MY SKIN IN ELATION!~"

"....."

"But wait.... You're all still outside..."

"If you all praise me so highly, that must mean you want me. You WANT to be with me in this game too, right? I know you do. You HAVE to. I don't care anymore if I have that little game breaker and my Darling in here already. YOU ALL CLEARLY WANT TO HAVE FUN TOO."

"LET ME DRAG YOU ALL TO HELL WITH ME!! I PROMISE TO LOVE YOU ALL UNTIL THE DAY I TEAR YOU LIMB FROM LIMB!!!!~"

.

.

.

[Vi is no longer available for asks.]

[Sending information to next available admin...]

[pokemon-ash-aus]

You’re speaking with the knowledge that a Mew has never survived the Mind type… do you know who it was? Were there multiple? Were you close to them?

Sorry if this comes off as insensitive, Pup and Seymour. Just want to know more about this awful virus!

Seymour: I did what anyone else would have done. I tried to get away. But-

Pup: You did all you could do.

Seymour: Yeah...

[diamondphantom-art]

made a fakemon friend based on pokerus as a warm up lol

[riftclaw]

Actually, this one can go up too. It's an-universe educational pamphlet about pokerus!

[inaris-pokemon-world]

📚 Pokérus ?

Fun fact #8: Some years ago, a now-dismissed scientist claimed that Pokérus was jumping species to humans, causing a scare that encouraged trainers to isolate any infected Pokémon. Nowadays, it’s well know this was untrue, but Pokérus reports never bounced back to normal after.

[mossyriverrocks]

IM ONE GYM INTO POKEMON X AND MY POKEMON HAVE CAUGHT POKERUS

GUYS

[shuppetghost]

I’ve been playing Pokerogue the past 2 days, and on my 4th run through I managed to get Pokerus! (For those that don’t know it’s approximately a 1 in 21 thousand probability - it basically just improves your base stats)

This was my run where I swept with onix and volbeat (notoriously weak Pokémon) for 50 floors, then managed to get a torterra, as well as DNA splicers to fuse my onix with a noibat.

[gaying-mantis-phd]

i’ve been playing pokémon games for over 10 years and i finally got pokerus 😭🙏

[a-horde-of-mews]

So, what happens to a pokemon with mind infected boiled body after three days? Do they just perish? Is there any sign of recovery? Or does nothing change at all?

Seymour: So it was inevitable?

King: Yup, I think that the Mew you killed- you gave her a mercy beyond anything she could have imagined. It was either you- or her.

Seymour: But the humans...

King: Even with the best they can do, they still had a small chance of them surviving. 3 out of a hundred. And those chances could even drop if they had a higher count.

[pokemonshelterstories]

Hello! Forgive my ignorance because I don’t know much about the topic, but how bad is Pokerus as a disease? Although I want to raise a Pokémon in the future, my family is currently against having any Pokémon. I do have friends that have Pokémon, but they’ve all been saying Pokerus is a good thing and you’re lucky if your Pokémon gets it. I don’t entirely believe that, because we likely wouldn’t have a vaccine for it otherwise, but I’m still genuinely curious.

although pokerus has some short-term benefits in the way it affects a pokemon's growth, the long-term effects- which have only recently been studied to the point where we're beginning to understand them- can be severe, and they last long past the infection period. there's a reason we don't see it much in the wild; healthy populations of wild pokemon don't test positive for pokerus antibodies.

because pokerus attacks the endocrine system, causing overproduction of testosterone, we see some effects that are positive for battling, but many effects that have an overall negative impact on the pokemon's health. although these pokemon experience great muscular growth, they also experience an increase in aggressive behavior. this can make them too aggressive to battle or even handle, leading to the potential of behavioral euthanasia. in addition, excessively high levels of testosterone can cause physiological issues such as infertility and tissue swelling, and it also puts a strain on the heart and liver.

because these issues can cause premature death or poor quality of life, it is highly recommended to vaccinate against pokerus.

[ask-pokerus-virus]

((Just because Vi can not answer asks, doesn't mean he can't appear in your ask boxes! If you want to interact with him, you can reblog this or comment or something :p

-Pearl))

[pokemon-ash-aus]

But that doesn’t sound like the pokerus we know- at least not the one I know?

Pup: Caly and Vision once told me that they traversed to a world where Boiled Body was pleasent. Where the pain wasn't there and all you got was a nice warm feeling.

Seymour: All of us were pretty jealous of that. Boiled Body can sometimes take our loved ones from us.

Pup: Even Auntie lost some children under that...

[quillpokebiology]

If Pokerus are rare then how do Pokemon get infected by it? I heard that Pokerus are small living bacteria of sorts or something.

I was trying to keep this short, but there's a lot of shit to explain and might as well do full explanation here. Plus, it helps better understand if you have the full origin.

How Pokerus Works

Pokerus causes the pokemkn infected to become stronger. It is beneficial for awhile, making them smarter and more powerful. But it soon starts taking away the pokemon's energy, until they can no longer live.

Pokerus Origin

Pokerus is a similar to a virus, meaning it gets into organisms and multiplies with living cells. But because it's an organism, it technically doesn't count as virus, It's actually a bacteria.

The bacteria is weird, however, only infecting the "Matencia cell."

The "Matencia cell" is the cell pokemon that produces their battling moves. Pokerus will attach itself to the Matencia cell, transforming the Matencia cell to make it bigger and stronger, and the new Matencia cell will do the same thing.

(Infected Matencia Cell)

For reference, here's the Matencia Cell and Pokerus side-by-side.

How Pokerus Spreads

Pokerus can be found on any living organism but affects pokemon the most. Common ways pokemon get it are being in contact with other pokemon with pokerus. But they can also get it by eating something with the bacteria on it.

Symptoms

Early symptoms of Pokerus include:

-Boosted physical strength

-Heightened agression

Later Symptoms of Pokerus

-Higher body temperature

-Sore throat

-Coughing fits

-Sneezing fits

-Becoming weaker in everyday life, but being a lot stronger when battling

-Not moving for long periods of time

-Having short bursts of energy after eating or drinking, only to become super tired afterwards

-Trouble thinking

@sinnoh-student I suggest taking Bunny to a vet. Idk if she has it, but she seems to follow a lot of the symptoms. It's also best to be safe. Pokerus gets harder to cure the longer it goes on, and catching it early is your best bet.

Here's other info in a different post I made, and one I reblogged.

[pokemoncaretips]

The problem with pokerus

With pokerus vaccination season around the corner, I thought I'd make an informational post about this sneakily dangerous virus.

Pokerus appears as large growths over a pokemons body. The last for around 1 to 3 days before the immune system fights off the infection. While infected, pokemon grow faster and appear to become stronger, and for many years, pokerus was assumed to be purely beneficial, with it being standard practice in the battling circuit to hold "pox parties" if a pokemon came down with it. It was seen as an extra advantage.

Until Cinder the charizard dropped dead of heart failure in front of a horrified arena. In the course of the investigation, the coroner who performed his autopsy began to have suspicions, and started looking into the medical files of other championship pokemon. And discovered that pokemon who had pokerus were over 85% more likely to suffer from heart, lung, joint and immune issues, with an average of 5 years lost from overall life expectancy.

As it turns out, that rapid growth had a cost. Like walking on a pulled muscle, it strained the system, causing low level damage to pile up behind the scenes.

Upon this discovery, scientists immediately went into overdrive to find a vaccine, and Cinders grief-stricken trainer began campaigning, eventually leading to "Cinder's law", making it an offence to deliberately infect a pokemon with pokerus.

Nowadays, with frequent vaccination drives and education, pokerus is much rarer, and has even been wiped out completely in Paldea. But in many places wild pokemon still carry the virus, and there are always those unscrupulous types who will do anything for an advantage.

F.A.Q

"My pokemon has pokerus, what do I do?"

If possible, take it to a pokemon centre. They have isolation wards there and excellent PPE. If this isn't possible, the first thing is to report the case with the hotline number that should be listed on your pokemons paperwork. From there, isolate your pokemon immediately. And under no circumstances are they to strain themselves. No training. No battling. Nothing that could possibly put stress on the body. Enrichment should be done with low energy, low impact games and toys. Pokerus only presents a risk if the body is exerted. Pokemon who rested when infected show no signs of damage later.

Wash your hands THOUROUGHLY after handling them, and change clothes frequently. If you have access to PC boxes, put your other pokemon away for the duration if they show no signs yet. Do not box the infected pokemon, this merely suspends the virus and risks spreading it to your other pokemon.

If your pokemon is uncomfortable and it is safe to do so, an Epsom salt bath can provide relief from the itchy sores.

Once your pokemon has recovered, the tumours will flake off. As distasteful as it might be, collect and bag them and take them to a pokemon centre, who will destroy them for you using the correct biohazard procedures.

"I have a magnemite. Are they at risk?"

Yes. By the same poorly understood method pokemon of all kinds can breed with each other, pokerus can be transferred from flesh and blood to steel to stone. On steel types it often manifests as bulges in the metal and flaky patches of rust. Rock type pokemon develop pebble-like growths.

"Can I catch pokerus?"

No, but you can inadvertently track it about. If you're isolating your pokemon at home, you should be isolating too. After the infection is over, wash every piece of clothing, bedding and furniture you can.

"I'm a pokemon battler and my pokemon is supposed to be in a tournament, what do I do?"

Besides the above procedures, contact the league. Reporting the case shows them you're willing to abide by the laws, but they will likely send around a representative in PPE to check you aren't training your pokemon. If they're satisfied you're abiding by Cinders Law, they'll sign you off afterwards once your pokemon passes a health check, and it will go on your file. Then you can continue on as normal. This is why sending them to a pokemon centre has the advantage, as the nurses can do much of this for you. Pokemon who have had pokerus have antibodies that show up on tests, and we're getting better at spotting the tell-tale signs of damage caused by training. They will tell if you're trying to get an edge. And your trainers licence will be flatly revoked.

"Can my pokemon catch it twice?"

No.

"Does the vaccine have any side effects?"

It may cause some swelling and a light fever. You're pokemon may also become slightly drowsy. They'll ask you to stay in the centre for 20 minutes after it's administered to make sure there's no serious allergic reactions but these are very rare.

"How can I get the vaccine?"

Pokemon in adoption centres and starters are vaccinated as a matter of course, and come with a certificate. If you catch a wild pokemon, you can make an appointment with your local pokemon centre. If there isn't one where you are, you can call the nurses hotline, and a mobile nurse will pay you a visit. If you hatch a pokemon, it shouldn't be vaccinated until it is at least a month old for safety reasons, and you should be very careful about letting it come into contact with pokemon whose vaccinated status you're unsure about.