It started in District 10.
It was kept quiet, but the Capitol was always watching District 10 more than the others. It was, by both population and size, the largest district, because the consumption of meat by Panem was immense and only grew each year. In fact, a recent trend in the Capitol, popular for a decade, had pushed the consumption higher; "excess feasts", where a host seeks to impress their guests with their generosity by giving them more than they could ever hope to finish.
The Capitol had ordered 10 to increase production; and when production could increase no further by natural bounds, had ordered 3 to find the solution.
The response was twofold: inspection of genetic sequences to improve the size of livestock, and a treatment of antibiotics mixed in with the feed of the animals to prevent sickness and encourage steroidal growth.
When District 3 suggested this tactic, they requested the Capitol to exercise caution and to only use this as a temporary measure, citing the potential of antibiotic resistance rising in bacterium. District 3 probably anticipated the Capitol would take this seriously: the Capitol despised illness. But it must have seemed too distant and abstract a request in the face of the projected gains in livestock production, and District 3 were summarily ignored.
And so, a decade later, it started in District 10.
A couple deaths by illness was by no means uncommon, even in summer. A couple hundred deaths caught the eye of the Capitol authorities, and the Mayor was given a call to quarantine. The Mayor replied quarantine would be impossible in a district so large, and so the Peacekeepers relieved him of duty.
When a team of analysts from District 3 and the Capitol's Risk Management department arrived, they discovered a place in chaos. A third of all livestock were infected with a bacterium resistant to all broad-spectrum antibiotics. The bacterium had infected one-twentieth of the population, and the symptoms were unpleasant; pox-like itching, which if acted on became raw lesions that further spread disease. Couple this with a sickness like pneumonia, and you have an illness that, come winter, could become more deadly than it already was.
The information came as the 74th Games were held, and the Capitol made a choice to rig the 10th Reaping. A couple healthy children, picked from a healthy crowd. No need for panic if nobody knows to.
The 74th came and went, some Career from 2 wins, and all eyes turn to the Quell.
And as they do, the first of the Capitolian Risk Management Team falls sick.
Ever watched Contagion? Me neither. Presenting the new SYOT on the block: Fomite 75. If you've ever submitted to an SYOT, you know the drill: fill out the form, try not to write some identikit child prodigy who's shy but deadly, send it on to me, and I'll write them into my death arena for you. Fun all round!
BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE: I like including Gamemakers/unusual POVs in my SYOTs. If you want to take a chance at writing a Gamemaker (no Head Gamemakers please!) who might get a little more individual screentime, I'm going to be a little more picky with them but feel welcome to add one to the bottom of another tribute submission.
And a special note to anyone who submits via 10, 12 and other rural districts; 10, despite Capitol efforts, have been decimated by this disease, nearly destroyed. 12 live in fear of the ill, and while they're not in as bad a way, about a fifth of the population died in the winter. All districts have more security, but 6, 9 and 11 have the most.
TRIBUTE AND GAMEMAKER FORM:
Who are you?:
What made you who you are?:
What can the Hunger Games bring you?:
Alternatively, this standard form;
Name:
Age:
District:
Personality:
Backstory:
Best attributes:
Worst attributes: