Boren's Syndrome

Boren's Syndrome is a fictitious human disease used as a cover-up by the Office of Naval Intelligence to keep the identity of the SPARTAN-Is classified.

Public knowledge
Information about this "disease" was spread to the public by the Office of Naval Intelligence following the end of the ORION Project, complete with a list of symptoms. The disease allegedly caused tumors and migraines, and was supposedly caused by exposure to certain types of radiation.

Claims as to the cause of the disease include inhaling the gases released when a Type-51 Carbine magazine is ejected and being exposed to Plasma Grenade radiation, although these causes are either ONI cover-ups or battlefield superstition. Several Insurrectionists claimed to have this condition, hoping to bargain with the UNSC to gain treatment for the condition in trade for some FENRIS Nuclear Warheads they had in stock. However, their status was false, as the bargain was revealed to be a trap set up by General Howard Graves in an attempt to capture SPARTAN-IIs.

Cover-up
Staff Sergeant Avery Johnson's falsified medical record - to hide his real, classified record - had him as a sufferer of Boren's, in which he was to have contracted the disease on Paris IV, after being in contact with a dangerously high amount of radiation apparently originating from a crate of captured Plasma Grenades.

This false record event (known to ONI as the Paris/BS Spoof) was likely used as a means of avoiding any investigation into his altered DNA and physiology, which would have revealed him as a SPARTAN-I.

List of appearances

 * Halo: First Strike
 * Halo: Graphic Novel
 * Halo: Ghosts of Onyx