Plague Doctor

"Cough, cough..."

The night was hazy, and coughs continued to come from various wards, echoing in the corridors of the inpatient department.

The facilities of the town hospital are rudimentary, and the isolation ward where Shen Haoxuan is located is not a real isolation ward, but is set up as a general ward.

There were three hospital beds, two of which were vacant. He was lying on one of them, with an injection on the back of his hand and several bottles of intravenous drip. There was no TV in the ward. Fortunately, his mobile phone was not confiscated and the network signal was still good, so he could still play with it to relieve his boredom.

Shen Haoxuan pressed his phone with both hands and sent a message to his friend Liu Hui on WeChat:

"Really unlucky, pneumonia, quarantined."

"I was supposed to go to the general ward, but the doctor suddenly said that I needed to be quarantined. Even my parents were quarantined."

"The uncle on the bus must have infected me. I may have to stay in the hospital for several days. I hope I can make it to the comic show in the city on Saturday, but I have no choice."

After a while, Liu Hui didn't reply.

Shen Hao

He once again checked the WeChat post that Deng Nuotong posted today: "Next stop is Shen Normal University. Thank you for the past and look forward to the future. Come on!"

"Haha, cough..." Shen Haoxuan couldn't help laughing when he saw it, and felt that his body was much better. I used to look forward to a few more days during the summer vacation, but now I look forward to the university starting as soon as possible. At this time, his phone vibrated when he received a WeChat message. When he saw it, it was from Liu Hui:

"Oops, I started coughing in the evening and now my fever is 39 degrees."

"Perhaps you were infected with pneumonia? No, right?"

"My mother gave me cold medicine. Do I want to go to the hospital now?"

Looking at these messages, Shen Haoxuan felt sorry for his friends, but also muttered uneasily, "Am I contagious?" Besides Liu Hui, is there anyone else?

He thought of his parents, several other friends, and so many people at the comic exhibition...

Don't think nonsense. Shen Haoxuan coughed and told himself that there is no such serious infection, not even SARS.

It's just pneumonia. The doctor can take care of it. It should be cured after a few days in the hospital.

Shen Haoxuan pressed his cell phone to reply: "Come to the hospital quickly, blame me. When we get better, I'll treat you to a meal."

…

The thirtieth case, the fortieth case, the fiftieth case.

If Jiangxing Town Hospital didn't usually have so many patients and had a large number of vacant wards, it wouldn't have been able to cope with tonight's outbreak. But each patient must be isolated individually, and the wards will still be insufficient. Everyone in the hospital was busy this night.

The CDC gave the town an order to lock down the hospital. Suspected infected patients can come in, but no one can leave.

"Hey, Xiaolin, you should pay attention when the tenth patient appears."

Zhao Yutao changed his tone and was already wearing a triple mask. He found opportunities to sneak out of the emergency room from time to time, not wanting to come into contact with patients.

Huang Lin ignored him. Although she wore multiple masks, she stayed in the emergency room and took the time to call her classmates and teachers at the university to ask for advice.

The teacher gave her an idea. Could it be "Legionella pneumonia"?

Let alone town-level hospitals, even in tertiary-level hospitals, Legionnaires' disease is often misdiagnosed as ordinary pneumonia. Because this is not a common disease, ordinary doctors usually lack awareness of it. Moreover, the clinical manifestations of Legionnaires' disease are complex, and routine examinations lack specificity. Serological tests to check for Legionella antibodies can only confirm it.

"Legionnaire's disease." Huang Lin read some literature on the Internet and found that it was somewhat similar, but not completely. The patient's condition progressed too quickly.

Some news made her extremely uneasy. Not long ago, there were outbreaks of Legionnaires' disease in many cities around the world.

Huang Lin immediately reported this possibility to the people in the hospital's infectious disease department, only to learn that the CDC had issued a prevention and treatment document a few days earlier that told them to be careful about Legionnaires' disease. But prevention and control documents are always coming one after another, prevention and control work has been carried out, and the hospital's air-conditioning and refrigeration system has been cleaned.

Legionnaires' disease often breeds and breaks out in hospitals, but the first patient, Wang Guoxin, last came to the hospital several years ago and was not infected in a hospital.

At 21:45 in the evening, an hour and ten minutes after the report, an expert team sent by the Municipal Disease Control and Prevention to conduct an epidemiological investigation arrived.

Everyone in the hospital's infectious disease department and medical staff who were greeted in the hospital lobby were stunned. They saw team leader He Fenghe, deputy team leader Li Wen and two others wearing a full-body white protective suit and a full-body mask. Respirator, no skin exposed at all.

Then everyone in the emergency room also saw it, and Zhao Yutao quickly put on two more masks.

Huang Lin was mentally prepared. The disease control people also suspected that Legionnaires' disease was transmitted through the air...

After getting to know each other, He Feng and others walked to the isolation ward while talking with Huang Lin about the patient's condition. They first went to see Wang Guoxin. His condition continued to deteriorate and he was already experiencing symptoms of confusion. He had just coughed up a large ball of bloody phlegm, and the strong smell of blood and putrid smell filled the ward.

"This medical waste cannot be disposed of normally." He Feng specifically told the people in the hospital's infectious diseases department.

After seeing several patients, especially Shen Haoxuan, he determined that this was an epidemic outbreak.

"Comic Con?"

After Shen Haoxuan was infected, he attended a comic exhibition with more than 3,000 visitors. This situation made He Feng and the others even more distressed.

He Feng hurriedly made multiple calls, asking the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to take it seriously, upgrade the epidemic control work, and apply for a temporary control blockade of Jiangxing Town.

But he knew that time was too short, there were too few test results to support, and it was a big problem.

At night, it won't be as efficient. If it weren't for the recent outbreak of Legionnaires' disease around the world, and if there were documents from higher-ups, his words would have been immediately dismissed.

Now because he reported suspected Legionnaires' disease, and Huang Lin, the doctor on duty, agreed, the disease control and other departments became nervous.

Is it Legionnaires' disease? Or some other kind of pneumonia?

It was too late to get the serum for antibody testing. It takes a week or two for the patient's body to produce antibodies; and the bacterial culture being done in the town hospital took even longer.

However, in recent years, nucleic acid amplification technology has matured, and the understanding of microorganisms has shifted from external structural characteristics to internal genetic structural characteristics, and detection has also shifted from biochemical and immunological methods to genetic level detection. PCR technology can be used to quickly complete preliminary testing and effectively respond to such public health emergencies.

However, the conditions of the town hospital are limited and there is no PCR laboratory. Either ship the samples out or ship the equipment in.

As early as on the way here, He Feng applied for the PCR equipment to be transported into Jiangxing Town.

It was also because of the importance attached to Legionnaires' disease that the superiors quickly approved his request.

In the early morning, a batch of instruments and equipment finally arrived at the town hospital, along with a group of testing technicians, all wearing protective clothing. After everyone set up PCR equipment in a small laboratory in the hospital, they immediately used 22 respiratory pathogen nucleic acid detection kits for rapid screening.

Whether it is epidemic viruses, parainfluenza viruses, coronaviruses, Legionella pneumophila, Mycoplasma pneumoniae, etc., they can all be detected using their DNA.

It was also at this time that Li Wen, who was responsible for guiding the medical work, hurried into the laboratory, his face looking ugly under the respirator mask.

"What's wrong?" He Feng asked, knowing something was wrong.

"Dr. Huang Lin has cough symptoms." Li Wenhan said, "Another Dr. Zhao Yutao and several nurses in the emergency department also have symptoms."

He Feng's brows suddenly furrowed... Dr. Huang Lin has only been on duty for 6 hours now. This onset time is even shorter than the average incubation period of 36 hours for non-pneumonic Legionnaires' disease, much shorter...

This entire hospital is an epidemic area.

Although PCR technology is very fast, it is relatively speaking. From early morning to the next morning, everyone in the laboratory was busy and waiting.

Not a virus, not strep, not chlamydia…

Legionella pneumophila! The DNA structure shows that this is a new type of Legionella.

As soon as the test results came out, He Feng, who had not slept all night, was actually a little happy. The pathogen is within the known range. Although the onset of disease is fast and the disease progresses rapidly, using treatment to control Legionnaires' disease should be able to quell the epidemic. Although Legionella can be airborne, it relies heavily on aerosols as carriers...

Just when He Feng was feeling lucky, without any warning, he coughed suddenly due to the sudden strange feeling in his throat, and his lungs felt stuffy.

For an instant, He Feng stood in this small laboratory, his face pale and a little dizzy. All the experimenters around were stunned.

"Level 3 protective clothing doesn't work, level 3 protective clothing doesn't work..."

He Feng murmured in confusion, and suddenly broke out into a series of coughs. The sadness and panic that surged out at the same time made him almost fall to the ground.

Person-to-person, airborne transmission.

The infectious force can penetrate level three protective clothing...

I am afraid that most of the visitors at the comic exhibition that Shen Haoxuan attended were infected.

The entire Jiangxing Town is an epidemic area.

The entire Shanhai City is an epidemic area...

Love the Plague Doctor.