Given how contagious tuberculosis is, it's a wonder that Arthur didn't infect anyone in the Van der Linde camp after becoming sick in RDR2.

Arthur Morgan contracts tuberculosis towards the latter half of Red Dead Redemption 2, and though first-time players may be confused as to how he got it in the first place, the real mystery is how Arthur didn’t infect anyone else. No one in the Van der Linde gang became sick with tuberculosis over the course of the game, despite Arthur seemingly not taking any precautions to safeguard other people.

There’s a specific scene that explains how Arthur contracted tuberculosis. During a money-lending mission for Leopold Strauss, the outlaw went to collect a debt from the Downes family. The patriarch, Thomas Downes, was visibly ill and he ends up coughing blood as Arthur is beating him up. Arthur doesn’t pay much attention when the blood is spewed in his face, but it proved to be a fatal encounter.

Arthur actually succumbing to the TB is dependent on how players play the game. If Arthur has low honor, Micah will finish him off first. But if not, the tuberculosis will claim his life in the end. But given the close proximity he was in with his fellow gang members, and all of the other people he encountered along the way, it just doesn’t make sense that he was the only person (aside from Downes) to get sick.

How Contagious Was Arthur’s TB In Red Dead Redemption 2?

Tuberculosis is an infection caused by a slow-growing bacterium that attacks parts of the body which contain a lot of air and blood, namely the lungs. It’s considered highly contagious and is spread through tiny droplets that become released in the air when an infected person coughs, sneezes, or simply talks, according to the Mayo Clinic. Symptoms include coughing blood, fever, night sweats, and chills. However, not everyone shows symptoms, or they may take a while to appear, so an infected person can transmit the disease without even knowing. Although there are medications now available to treat this disease, catching tuberculosis was once a death sentence when a proper understanding of TB and treatment options weren’t available.

After his encounter with Downes, Arthur continued about his life as per usual. He came in close contact with various gang members, spending one-on-one time with some of them. Arthur didn’t start showing symptoms of tuberculosis right away in the game, so even if he took proper precautions to distance himself from others once diagnosed, it’s still unbelievable that he didn’t infect anyone in the camp. Still, that’s what the game wants players to believe — that no one else got sick.

Red Dead Redemption 2’s epilogue neatly tied up the stories of the main non-playable characters, showing what each of them was up to after the Van der Lindes disbanded. But there was no mention of anyone else succumbing to TB. As such, it remains a major plot hole in Red Dead Redemption 2 as to how Arthur didn’t manage to infect anyone else with tuberculosis.

NEXT: RDR2: Why Dutch Stayed Loyal To Micah (Even Though He Knew Better)