"Cough, cough …"
The sound of coughing came from the sickrooms, echoing down the corridor.
The facilities at the town hospital were simple. The quarantine room that Shen Haoxuan was placed in was not a real quarantine room, it was a normal sickroom.
Two of the three beds were empty. He was lying on one of them. There were needles on the back of his hand and he was hooked up to an IV drip. There was no television in the room. Thankfully, his phone was not confiscated and the internet signal was still there. Therefore, he could play on his phone.
Shen Haoxuan's hands pressed on his phone as he messaged his friend Liu Hui on WeChat.
"What bad luck, I'm quarantined for pneumonia.
"I was supposed to go to a normal room but the doctor suddenly said I need to be quarantined. Even my parents were quarantined.
"It must be the uncle on the bus who infected me. I might need to stay at the hospital for a few days. Hopefully, I can make it to the comic con on Saturday."
Liu Hui did not reply for a long time.
Shen Haoxuan's coughing worsened. It had been half an hour since he was hooked up to the IV drip but his fever still did not go down.
He checked Deng Ruotong's post again. "Next stop, Shen Shi University. Thank you for the past, look forward to the future, good luck!"
"Haha, cough …" Shen Haoxuan chuckled as he read the post. He felt much better. Before this, he was looking forward to the summer holidays but now he was looking forward to the start of university. At that moment, his phone vibrated with a WeChat notification. He took a look and saw that it was from Liu Hui.
"Oh no, I've been coughing since this evening and now I have a fever of 39 degrees."
"You must have infected me. Pneumonia? Seriously? "
"My mom gave me some flu medicine, should I go to the hospital now?"
Reading the messages, Shen Haoxuan felt sorry for his friend but at the same time, he grumbled anxiously, 'I infected you? Other than Liu Hui, it can't be anyone else, right? '
He was reminded of his parents, his friends and the crowd at the comic con …
'Don't worry about it. ' Shen Haoxuan told himself through his coughs, 'Not even SARS can be contagious.'
It's just pneumonia, the doctors can handle it. I'll be fine after a few days at the hospital. '
Shen Haoxuan replied, "Come to the hospital now, it's my fault. When we're better, I'll treat you to a meal."
…
The 30th case, the 40th case, the 50th case.
If it wasn't for the fact that Jiang Xin Hospital usually didn't have that many patients, they wouldn't have been able to handle the outbreak tonight. However, each patient had to be isolated separately, and there were not enough wards. That night, everyone in the hospital was busy.
The disease control center gave the order to the town to lock down the hospital. Patients who were suspected to be infected could come in but no one was allowed to leave.
"Hey, Xiao Lin, you should pay attention when the tenth patient appears."
Zhao Yutao changed his tone. He was already wearing three layers of masks. From time to time, he would look for opportunities to slip out of the emergency room. He did not want to come into contact with the patients.
Huang Lin ignored him. Even though she was also wearing multiple face masks, she stayed in the emergency room and took the time to call her classmates and teachers to ask for their opinions.
The teacher gave her an idea, could it be 'legionella pneumonia'?
Even in tertiary Grade A hospitals, legionella pneumonia would be misdiagnosed as common pneumonia, much less a township hospital. Since legionella pneumonia was not a common disease, normal doctors did not know much about it. Furthermore, the clinical manifestations of legionella pneumonia were complicated. Routine tests lacked specificity, so serological tests were necessary to confirm the diagnosis.
"Legionella pneumonia." Huang Lin went online to look up some information. There was some similarity but not all of it. The patient's condition was progressing too fast.
However, some news made her uneasy. Not long ago, there were outbreaks of legionella pneumonia in many cities around the world.
Huang Lin immediately reported this possibility to the infection control department. Only then did she find out that the disease control center had issued a warning to be careful of legionella pneumonia. However, the warning came one after another. The prevention work had been carried out, even the hospital's cooling system had been cleaned.
Legionella pneumonia was a common occurrence in hospitals but the last time the first patient, Wang Guoxin, came to the hospital was several years ago, so he did not contract it at the hospital.
At 21: 45 pm, one hour after the report, the team sent by the disease control center arrived.
The people from the Department of Infection Control and the medical staff were stunned. They saw Team Leader He Feng, Vice Team Leader Li Wen, and the other two people were all wearing white protective suits. They even had a full respiratory protective device on. Not a single bit of their skin was exposed.
Then the people at the emergency room saw it too. Zhao Yutao quickly put on two layers of masks.
Huang Lin was mentally prepared, the people from the disease control center probably suspected legionella pneumonia as well. Airborne …
After the introductions, He Feng's team and Huang Lin discussed the patient's condition as they headed to the quarantine rooms. They first went to visit Wang Guoxin. His condition continued to worsen, he was already showing signs of delirium. He had just coughed up a large blob of bloody phlegm. The stench of blood and decay permeated the room.
"These medical waste cannot be disposed of normally." He Feng ordered the people from the infection control department.
After visiting a few patients, especially Shen Haoxuan, He Feng confirmed that this was an epidemic.
"A comic con?"
After Shen Haoxuan was infected, he attended a comic con with over 3000 visitors. This news made He Feng's heart ache.
He Feng made many phone calls, requesting for the disease control center to take this seriously. He requested for Jiang Xin Town to be placed under lockdown.
However, He Feng knew he was in a hurry and there were too few test results. Furthermore, it was late at night, the efficiency would be low. If not for the recent outbreak of legionella pneumonia and the orders from the higher-ups, He Feng's request would have been rejected immediately.
Now that he was reported as a suspected legionella pneumonia case and the doctor on duty, Huang Lin, agreed with him, the disease control center and other departments became nervous.
Was it legionella pneumonia? Or some other kind of pneumonia?
It was too late to use the serum for antibody testing, it would take 1 to 2 weeks for the patient's body to produce antibodies; the bacterial culture at the town hospital would take even longer.
However, in recent years, nucleic acid amplification technology had shifted from the external structure of microorganisms to the internal structure of their genes. Detection had also shifted from biochemical and immunological methods to genetic analysis. PCR technology could quickly complete the initial detection and effectively deal with this kind of public health emergency.
However, the town hospital was not equipped with a PCR lab. They had to either ship the samples out or the equipment in.
On the way to Jiang Xin Town, He Feng had already requested for the PCR equipment to be shipped into Jiang Xin Town.
It was due to the importance of legionella pneumonia from the higher-ups that his request was approved so quickly.
In the wee hours of the morning, a batch of equipment finally arrived at the town hospital. Accompanying them was a group of technicians, all of whom were also wearing protective suits. After setting up the PCR equipment in a small lab, they used the 22 respiratory pathogen nucleic acid detection kits to conduct a quick screening.
Be it influenza virus, parainfluenza virus, coronavirus, legionella pneumophila or Mycoplasma pneumoniae, they could all be identified by DNA.
At that moment, Lee Wen, who was responsible for guiding the hospital, rushed into the lab. His face was pale under the respirator mask.
"What's wrong?" He Feng asked, he knew something was wrong.
"Doctor Huang Lin is showing symptoms of coughing." Lee Wen said chillingly, "Doctor Zhao Yutao and a few nurses from the emergency department are showing symptoms as well."
He Feng's brows creased … Doctor Huang Lin had only been on duty for 6 hours, the incubation period of her illness was even shorter than the 36 hours for non-pneumoniae pneumoniae …
The whole hospital was an epidemic zone.
Even though PCR technology was fast, that was relatively speaking. From midnight to the next morning, everyone in the lab was busy waiting.
It was not a virus, not streptococcus, not chlamydia …
The PCR result confirmed that it was legionella pneumophila!
Once the results came out, He Feng, who had not slept the whole night, was elated. The pathogen was within the known range. Even though the disease appeared quickly and progressed rapidly, the method of controlling legionella pneumonia should be able to stop the epidemic. Even though legionella pneumophila could be transmitted through the air, it relied heavily on aerosol as a carrier …
Just as He Feng was feeling lucky, without warning, due to a strange sensation in his throat, he started coughing violently. His lungs felt constricted.
Instantly, He Feng stood inside the small lab. His face was pale and the world was spinning around him. The researchers around him were stunned.
"Level 3 protective gear doesn't work, level 3 protective gear doesn't work …"
He Feng mumbled blankly. Then another series of coughs broke out. At the same time, fear and shock surged through his body. He almost collapsed to the ground.
Spread from person to person, through the air.
The infectious force could penetrate through level 3 protective gear … This was not the legionella pneumophila that they knew, it was probably a new strain of legionella pneumophila …
Most of the visitors at the comic con that Shen Haoxuan attended were probably infected.
The whole of Jiang Xin was an epidemic zone.
The whole of San Hai City was an epidemic zone …
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