Boolan's virus

Boolan's virus was a highly-communicable airborne pathogen that was engineered by the Ithorian scientist Baron Boolan in 228 BBY. Harkening back to his upbringing in the Path of the Open Hand religious group, he created the virus with the intention to strip Force-sensitives' ability to manipulate the Force, forever making the Force free. Boolan brought his virus to the Yarvellian Institute medcenter on Protobranch, touting it as his cure for the Blight ravaging the galaxy. Although the virus temporarily could slow the progress of the Blight, the effect was fleeting.

As the Anacondan physician Dr. Gino'le administered the "cure" to a Lasat patient, Boolan triggered a computer virus to disrupt internal systems throughout the medcenter. Boolan expected the Lasat to easily transmit the virus to the Jedi observing the procedure without the man being harmed, but the Ithorian did not recognize that the Living Force resided in all beings, and that stripping the Living Force from someone is invariably fatal.

As the Lasat deteriorated, he transmitted the virus to Boolan himself. Boolan realized his mistake and hoped to engineer an antidote, but quickly fell unconscious from the infection. In a desperate move, bounty hunter Lourna Dee placed the quarantined infected and herself in stasis fields, keeping them in alive for a month until an antidote was reverse engineered by Yarvellian Institute scientists.

Text and facts from the “Boolan's virus” article on Wookieepedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Modified for this site.