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The Raleigh Outbreak was a fictional outbreak that occurred in Project Zomboid's timeline sometime in 1990, three years before the Knox Event in the city of Raleigh, North Carolina. It is frequently mentioned on WBLN News and can be heard on the occasional Home VHS tapes. The outbreak was responsible for the dismissal of Doctor Jeff Galbraithe, Chief Scientist at the Center for Disease Control, who would later criticize the CDC on WBLN News during the beginning of the Knox Event.
Outbreak similarities
The Raleigh Outbreak might have also affected livestock along with humans, creating the impression of a similar disease common among Americans at the time, mad cow disease (1980s-1990s). It can cause humans to get Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, slowly deteriorating their nervous system, cognitive decline, and physical inability, slightly similar to the Knox Infection. As seen on WBLN news, we can see a concerned person talking about their wife, the CDC response, and how it only affects livestock (even though the person mentioned that their wife had died because of it. Again, this could be a mutation of mad-cow disease and the human-caused Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease).
Within Project Zomboid, KnoxTalk Radio mentions the Knox Infection's similarity to Mad Cow Disease, spread by Spiffo's burgers. This may confirm that the Raleigh Infection was due to the Spiffo Corporation's influence within the area, especially because it was the founding city of Spiffo's.
Infection
The virus at the heart of the Raleigh Outbreak, the "EVNA Infection" either spreads through means like Mad Cow or similar to the Knox Infection through influenza-like means. From an excerpt from the VHS, "Shows" we know the infection is 'flesh-eating' meaning it might be bacterial-like Necrotizing fasciitis. The infection has been confirmed to kill one person the wife of Iain Sweetman a guest on the WBLN, and infecting with many more being infected and the infecting being labeled "Fatal". With the event being told in past tense we can assume the CDC's efforts were successful in stopping the outbreak even with the casualties.
Origin
The Raleigh Outbreak may have been accidentally made/spread by Spiffo's, as heard on the Secrets of Spiffo's Special Sauce Home VHS, considering the name, it is safe to say Spiffo Corporation is responsible for this. Keep a note that this is when Spiffo has become international, being within the boundaries of the former Soviet Union, England, and China.
Below is a transcript from the Home VHS mentioned.
Conspiracy Theorist:
And yet the Spiffo's Corporation has a secret it just won't tell anyone
A key ingredient in each of its burgers.
Spiffo's Special Sauce.
Just what exactly are the components of this sauce?
if they're safe, then why keep the recipe a secret?
And is there any truth to the rumor that the sauce was changed...
...just before the UK's BSE crisis began?
Perhaps the Spiffo's servers should be asking...
Do you want LIES with that?
There is also a Home VHS tape that also mentions the Raleigh Outbreak (does not involve the name, although is given a new name, the EVNA virus.), "Shows". Here is an extract.
Richard Gershwin:
Fatal illness continues to spread through the community.
The emergency services cannot cope.
Hospitals are on lockdown.
The flesh-eating EVNA infection is moving like wildfire.
Panic in the streets, and zero response from the promised military intervention.
Fifty new cases confirmed yesterday.
That's more than was recorded in the entirety of the 1989 Libyan outbreak.
Trivia
- During an episode of Talk the Night, we learn the wife of activist Iain Sweetman was one of the casualties in the Raleigh Outbreak.
- In the transcript of the VHS, Shows, we learn about a similar outbreak to the Raleigh Outbreak known as the Libyan Outbreak, which occurred a year before in 1989. Both outbreaks may be connected to the Knox Event, but little information is known.