Where did the idea of Goku getting the heart virus on Yardat came from?

[Hellspawn28]

I have seen people talk about Goku getting the virus on Yardat for over 20 years, and have no proof to back it up.

[Lance Freeman]

Well, it was an undiscovered virus before Goku had it because no treatment existed until after he died from it. The most logical solution is that he picked it up on Yardrat since no one else who was on Namek had it, unless he went to another planet in the 18-month journey home.

[theherodjl]

It's interesting how no one else among the team caught the virus despite frequently being around Goku, implying that the virus was either unique in that it only affected Goku...or it wasn't a virus. It's possible that the medicine that Trunks gave Goku was merely a placebo or had been regulated to being a placebo as a result of the timeline change, with Goku's body being able to overcome the(actual) illness on its own.
It just goes to show how the writing in the Android/Cell arc was more made up on the fly than it had been before.

[Koitsukai]

Let's wait and see, if Vegeta develops heart problems in the near future then it's a no-brainer.

[YoungDefender]

It's interesting how no one else among the team caught the virus despite frequently being around Goku, implying that the virus was either unique in that it only affected Goku...or it wasn't a virus. It's possible that the medicine that Trunks gave Goku was merely a placebo or had been regulated to being a placebo as a result of the timeline change, with Goku's body being able to overcome the(actual) illness on its own.
It just goes to show how the writing in the Android/Cell arc was more made up on the fly than it had been before.

Beyond all that the implication is that in the war torn dystopia that Trunks hails from there is still enough scientific technology to both develop the antidote as well as enough people who were contracting the virus to make it worth someone's time to develop the antidote in the midst of said destroyed hellscape.

To me this implies people on Earth other than Goku had come down with this virus. Given no one else in Goku's group of friends and family ever develops the illness from Goku's arrival back from Earth to the end of the Buu saga it is unlikely to be very contagious or it could be something that many are infected with as carriers but only some with a certain genetic makeup are actually vulnerable to and Goku has these genes. On that note it would have probably been a better idea writing-wise for Goku to have come down with some kind of genetic heart disease as opposed to the heart virus.

[theherodjl]

On that note it would have probably been a better idea writing-wise for Goku to have come down with some kind of genetic heart disease as opposed to the heart virus.

I do think it is very possible that this was the case. It's true that the heart virus was a thing in Trunks' timeline and that people besides Goku caught it there, but the only instance of something like it occurring in the main timeline was just with Goku; the fact that seemingly no one else directly in contact with him ever had it before or after, can only mean that it wasn't a virus. In the main timeline, Goku just had heart inflammation while in the future timeline, he had a viral heart infection.

[GreatSaiyaman123]

It's interesting how no one else among the team caught the virus despite frequently being around Goku, implying that the virus was either unique in that it only affected Goku...or it wasn't a virus. It's possible that the medicine that Trunks gave Goku was merely a placebo or had been regulated to being a placebo as a result of the timeline change, with Goku's body being able to overcome the(actual) illness on its own.
It just goes to show how the writing in the Android/Cell arc was more made up on the fly than it had been before.

I vaguely remember Yamcha and Chi-Chi saying they'd take the medicine too, so it is infectious.

Goku doesn't hang out with his friends that much. Gohan, Piccolo and maybe Chi-Chi were the only ones he saw frequently in the present, so maybe Piccolo is immune and Gohan and Chi-Chi just got lucky? Although I'm surprised Chi-Chi didn't develop any heart problems first, she's so stressed.

[miguelnuva1]

Forgive me for this could be a dub lone but Trunks says Goku will start to hear about the virus soon.

Future Goku was likely infected sooner because he would go around his friends slightly more and cities slightly more(theory).

Present Goku was isolated because he was trainning and only got exposed on the way to fight the Androids, which SS sped up the effect(theory).

No one else caught the Virus simply because their immune system was better like in real life not everyone catches the same virus.

(Theory) Bulma massed produced the antidote early in the main timeline as Goku recovered quicker than Trunks thought and thus Trunks got rid of the heart virus.

[theherodjl]

I vaguely remember Yamcha and Chi-Chi saying they'd take the medicine too, so it is infectious.

Goku doesn't hang out with his friends that much. Gohan, Piccolo and maybe Chi-Chi were the only ones he saw frequently in the present, so maybe Piccolo is immune and Gohan and Chi-Chi just got lucky? Although I'm surprised Chi-Chi didn't develop any heart problems first, she's so stressed.

That still leaves me wondering that if it was a virus in the main timeline as it was in the future, would there have even been enough medicine for more than one person? Goku drank like half of an already tiny bottle of medicine when he was brought home, and then he takes more after having a nightmare. It seems Yamcha, Chi Chi, and everyone else would have had to literally drink drops of it? But even then, there's no guarantee that such a tiny amount would prevent everyone from being infected or if they did become infected, be unable to spread it to any extent. The whole thing just makes me think Goku had heart inflammation from a cause other than viral, because Toriyama(and by extension, his editor) absolutely did not consider the full implications of the Goku catching a heart virus; what all with it just going away and never being a thing in the story ever again.

[SonTao]

People assume that Goku contracted it on Yardrat because it was the last place he stopped. But that can't be the case, since Vegeta went to Yardrat and still hasn't developed any signs of one yet.

In my opinion, I think Goku developed the Heart Virus because he lived in the woods like a literal wild animal after Gohan died. Sure, he knows how to cook his food and clean up after himself to a degree. However, he clearly eats each aspect of his meal, and just cooks the meat over the fire until burned or some form of browned. Let me state this again. He consumes the flesh, muscle, and intestines of everything he eats, with god knows what bacteria is living in them. Even cooked meat can be bad.

One might say that hey, Vegeta and the other saiyans ate raw meat and literal people on other planets. Why didn't THEY get any viruses? Thing is, they had the backing of Frieza's military and medical technology to purge illness and heal their wounds. It's also quite apparent that they didn't live in squalor. They're barbarians, but they have some sense of modern tech and how to keep themselves clean and healthy. Goku just dunked himself in the river to scrub himself off--and I think we all know that solely cleaning yourself in river water is a good way to get some kind of sickness.

In all likelihood? Due to Son Goku's lack of personal hygiene as a child and consumption of less than sanitary food... it's just totally from Earth. Goku started living way better after he met Bulma and the others, sure, but he still eats a metric crap ton of food (most meals from Chi-Chi but he still lives relatively the same when training and cooking food in the wilderness). And his hygiene being poor at such a young age means that he likely also contributed to the virus' propagation in his youth by lacking proper care for himself.

As to why he survived this long... saiyans are hearty creatures. They were built for conquest, both by nature's design and by Frieza's hand. Hell, the little suckers sit in a tube for like three years before getting the boot to uninhabited worlds. Prepared from birth to deal with hostile environments, it's likely that Goku's body was able to fight the virus constantly and keep it down until it spread to his heart by nature of being considered harmless by his body. It's crazy that it didn't do so beforehand, though.