Re: In today's news...
As for HOW it kills... lets say the bacteria plays host to microbes that produce hemolysins (boy o boy, I'm definitely getting put on a watch-list for that google!). Destroying the blood's ability to carry oxygen.
'The bacteria plays host to microbes' Doesn't make sense btw. Its like saying 'The Taxi is occupied by a few cars' How about we instead talk about bacterial endotoxins
Pretty sure they simply destroy the blood through haemolysis. If you wanna only mess with the bloods ability to carry oxygen you gotta work on the central atom conformation or feed it a better gas like CO.
Furthermore, if you attach it to bacteria its not exactly rocket science to cure, you never said you'd be using a resistant strain, so they get flushed out with a bunch of penicillin, now, that releases an additional dosage of toxins (this is what makes EHEC deadly btw) But if you take it prophylactic common antibiotics can stop your plague.. Heck, the reason the original plague got far as it did was that there was no such thing as modern medicine, you have an uphill battle up ahead.
I'd say the way to go is reverse transcriptase viruses and you want it hard to detect, highly infectious and at first slow acting with rapid uptake so it can spread while being mistaken as basic sniffles. Use something that shuts down the immune system itself, so.. basically make HIV more infectious, theres little truly effective medication for it and the vaccines are still in the pipeline.
Whats it with all the humancism. Some of my best friends are humans, they're an alright bunch. *nodnod*