Not only San Hai City, at the same time, this new legionella pneumonia epidemic was spreading across America, Europe, Africa and Oceania.
This was a global disaster.
Based on this rate of transmission, if there was no effective measures to stop it, the world would collapse within a month.
Even though they had their own agendas, the governments had no choice but to stand on the same side. The researchers and medical personnel were racing against time.
China had the earliest PCR result, Legionella pneumophila.
It was also the earliest report, erythromycin had no effect.
Another new clue was announced to the secret departments, the bacteria was man-made and spread by humans. The Afterlife Cult, the withered old man and possibly the R'yleh Cult …
Phecda members were at the frontline. The government had sent out many ships to the waters around San Hai City. The fleet was equipped with complete research equipment and research teams. The samples and patients would be transported by helicopter from San Hai City and various experiments would be carried out on the ships.
If there was an outbreak in the fleet, no one would be evacuated.
From the moment they departed, there were only two outcomes, success or death.
The first batch of samples and patients had been transported out from Jiang Xin City. At Jiang Xin City Hospital, the frontline did not give up.
The noise outside was chaotic, and the small laboratory was in a mess. The newly set PCR amplifiers and other equipment were placed on the laboratory table, and coughing sounds could be heard continuously.
He Feng was no longer quarantined, so were his assistant Lee Wen and the other researchers. However, they still wore level three protective gear, not only to alleviate their own anxiety but also to lower the bacteria concentration in the air. Even though the place was contaminated and they were all infected, the integrity of the disease control center could not be abandoned.
If they did, something in their hearts would crumble and they would never be able to pick it back up again.
The petri dish used Huang Guoxin's blood sample was placed inside the small incubator in the corner.
When it was opened, He Feng and the rest were shocked. Even Uncle Dan, who followed them, was shocked.
It was not because of the stench, they could not smell it.
It was because inside the petri dish, clusters of bacteria had formed. They were round, greyish white, moist and glossy.
These were the characteristics of legionella pneumophila.
"How long has this been going on?" Uncle Dan asked.
"About 34 hours." He Feng coughed, "The culture medium has not been changed in between."
Looking at the almost depleted culture medium in the petri dish, Uncle Dan was silent. This reproduction speed was fast, too fast.
There were four stages in the growth of microorganisms: the delay stage, the logarithmic stage, the stable stage, and the declining stage.
The stable period is also known as the highest growth period or the constant period. In the words of a medical book, due to the depletion of nutrients in the culture medium and the accumulation of harmful metabolites, the reproduction rate of microorganisms will gradually decrease, and the number of deaths will slowly increase. The number of cells that grow, divide, and die will be in a state of dynamic equilibrium.
It took some time to grow the bacteria to the highest point.
But in the current situation, the bacteria in the petri dish seemed to have entered the decline stage — the nutrients in the culture medium were not enough, and the bacteria were dying more than they were alive. This growth rate was several times faster than normal parasitic bacteria and legionella haemophilus. It was growing at a rate visible to the naked eye.
Moreover, they died too slowly. A decaying bacterial colony should not be like this unless there were a lot of living bacteria in it.
Then what did they consume? Were there really "harmful metabolites" for them?
He Feng's shivers became more intense. The reproduction that should have taken more than ten days was completed in a day.
This was why the patient's condition was progressing so fast. With every passing second, the new strain of legionella haemophilus was multiplying madly inside the macrophages of the infected's lungs. It invaded more areas of the lungs and damaged the other organs of the body.
Based on Huang Guoxin's condition, in another ten hours, he would be drained of energy and his mind would slowly fade away.
For the sake of his daughter, He Feng hoped that he could struggle a little longer.
Perhaps this period of hard work would bring him a turning point.
With that in mind, the group quickly separated the bacteria and placed a part of it into another petri dish. They sealed it and handed it over to a special task force to transport it to the fleet.
There would be more equipment and drugs to conduct more antibiotic sensitivity tests and other tests to search for the bacteria's weakness.
Then they busied themselves again. They moved the petri dish to a high precision microscope to study the bacteria.
"This thing …" Uncle Dan grumbled, "Let's see what it looks like."
Uncle Dan leaned closer to the eyepiece of the microscope. Since he was wearing an airtight protective suit, this was not an easy task. When he finally got a good look, Uncle Dan's heart skipped a beat. His mind seemed to be affected by something, and he started to panic.
Under the microscope, a normal legionella bacteria appeared as an oblong shape, it looked like a capsule.
But when one zoomed in, one could see that its surface was actually full of potholes. It was filled with things that looked like a mixture of brain and intestines.
It looked exactly like a worm.
But this new strain of legionella bacteria was still oblong in shape but there were more obvious spots on its surface.
But when one zoomed in again …
The spots on its surface were extensions that looked like limbs. They were wriggling and wiggling.
It seemed to have taken all kinds of limbs from a warehouse in hell and pieced them together. When magnified, it could be seen that … each of the "palms" of its limbs had a hole that looked like a mouth, and there were other tissues wriggling inside it …
Was this man-made? Uncle Dan's heart sank. 'These are crazy people.'
"Cough cough." He Feng followed his observation. This was the strangest bacteria that he had seen in his years of working at the disease control center.
At that moment, the door to the small lab was pushed open. A group of young men in airtight protective suits walked in with guns in their hands.
The man who led the group had a chilling face. He Feng and the rest were stunned. 'Is that caused by severe burns? But it doesn't look like it … '
"Ah Jun!" Uncle Dan gasped. His fighting spirit rose as if he had found his pillar of support. "Come and take a look at this thing."
He Feng recognized it. 'Gu Jun, Doctor Gu!' The higher-ups had told him that Doctor Gu was the hero of the secret department.
"Doctor Gu!" He Feng gasped. Tears almost fell from his eyes. 'Please save us, please save my daughter …'
From the moment Gu Jun walked into the lab, he had a feeling that he was surrounded by illusions. He nodded at the group and strode towards the microscope.
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