Bordal Contagion

"Then came the Bordal Contagion of 214 BBY. I don’t know what it was&mdash;some kind of plague that left people strangling on fluid in their lungs, awful stuff."

- Firmus Kett mentions the contagion in his memoirs

The Bordal Contagion was a plague-like disease which caused its victims to choke on fluid building up in their lungs. An outbreak of the disease occurred on the planet Bordal in 214 BBY, prompting the Galactic Republic to develop an antidote on the planet Tauber and then begin shipping it to the planet Kabal, which was located near Bordal. The shipments however never reached their destination, as the transports carrying them were attacked and stripped for parts by the Fujari pirates, who left the six million antidotes being carried to spoil. The Republic took no action against the Fujari, and eventually the Rseikharhl species native to the planet Rseik near Bordal began manufacturing the antidote themselves for the Bordali, however by this time millions were already dead. The Trade Defense Force Captain Firmus Kett claimed in his memoirs that the events surrounding the contagion outbreak were a major factor in prompting the Rseikharhl and several other groups active in the nearby area to turn to the Trade Federation for aid in dealing with the local pirates.

Behind the scenes
The Bordal Contagion was supposed to be first mentioned in The Essential Guide to Warfare, a sourcebook released in 2012 written by Jason Fry and Paul R. Urquhart, but they were ultimately cut from the final product. The section including the contagions was later published as part of Star Wars: The Essential Guide to Warfare: Author's Cut, a series of articles published on the StarWars.com blog starting in 2013.

Soures

 * The Essential Guide to Warfare