Game Guides
DayZ · Medical Care. Diagnosis, cholera, salmonellosis, wound infection and respiratory illness. Browse DayZ Disease Treatment Guide: Every Illness, Its Cure, and the Ones With No Cure, DayZ Cold and Flu Guide: Common Cold, Influenza and Pneumonia, DayZ Salmonellosis Guide: Bloody Hands, Raw Meat and Charcoal, with requirements, routes and walkthrough steps.
Treatment-first companion to the DayZ diagnosis guide, re-verified 2 November 2026 for current 1.30: every classic disease with its cure and its classic error, plus heatstroke, silicosis and irritated eyes from the published 1.30 scripts, and the no-cure list.
In current vanilla DayZ, Common Cold is Stage 1 of a respiratory progression, Influenza is Stage 2, and Pneumonia is the final dangerous stage. The progression is driven by low Heat Comfort. A survivor who stays warm can stop the chain from advancing and can recover from the earlier stages; a survivor who remains cold gives the disease time to escalate.
The most useful clue is what happened before the sickness icon. Ordinary raw or rotten meat, fat and guts can transmit Salmonellosis. Eating or drinking with bloody bare hands can also cause it, as can shared contaminated food/water or infected blood. Current vanilla references also keep an important predator exception: cooked Wolf Steak and Bear Steak can still carry Salmonellosis risk.
DayZ deliberately gives several illnesses the same generic sickness icon. The useful diagnosis comes from two things the icon does not tell you: what happened just before the illness and which symptoms appeared afterward. Vomiting can point to Cholera, Salmonellosis, Food Poisoning or gas exposure, while Fever can appear with Cholera, Influenza or Stage 2 Wound Infection. Taking the “strongest” medicine at random wastes time and can leave the real problem untouched.
The cause of the original bleed does not matter. Wound Infection is created when a bleeding wound is treated with a non-disinfected dressing/tool or is allowed to close on its own. That makes prevention simple: stop the bleed and use equipment that actually shows the Disinfected state.
If Cholera appears, the first job is to stop repeating the exposure. Pond, stream and lake water can carry the pathogen. Freshly spawned Plastic Bottles and Canteens can also contain contaminated water, and food or drink touched by an infected survivor can reinfect you after treatment. A Blood transfusion from a sick survivor can also transmit the disease.