When the international community turned their attention to the epidemic in Africa, Chen Chen had already begun his experiment.
At this time, there were already hundreds of patients infected with BE-006 in the enclosed isolation room.
These patients were volunteers selected by the company from nearby areas. They had signed personal consent forms. Even if they died in the end, Blacklight would not be held responsible.
Professors Bernhard, who were in charge of the virus research, stood in front of the isolation window and looked at the rows of beds inside while checking the process of each treatment.
At this moment, the door of the observation room opened quickly and Chen Chen appeared directly behind the door.
"Boss, why are you here?"
Everyone turned around and greeted him.
"These are troubled times, of course, I can't stay out of it."
Chen Chen waved his hand and said to Professor Bernhard, who was leading the group, "Have the symptoms of the virus been tabulated?"
"After dissecting thirty corpses over the past few days and studying hundreds of patients, we have a certain understanding of the symptoms of BE-006."
Bernhard took out a file and handed it to Chen Chen confidently. "The basic situation has been recorded."
Chen Chen took the file and flipped through it.
The first picture in the file was a picture taken by an electron microscope. There were several thin threads that were coiled into the shape of a bow, like worms.
Below the picture, there was the label Blackwatch.
The word Ebola.
Bernhard explained from the side, "It looks very beautiful, and it's somewhat similar to its relatives, but in reality, it's an out-and-out killer."
"I know, right?"
Chen Chen shrugged and turned to the second page. It was a picture of a black man.
However, this black man was bleeding from all seven orifices and even his skin was oozing blood. He looked extremely lifeless.
"This is the standard symptom of a hemorrhagic fever."
Bernhard explained, "The principle of the BE virus is almost identical to its relative, the Preston virus. It enters the air through the droplets produced by the host when they speak, then enters the body through the eyes, nose, mouth, or wounds of the infected person.
"I've divided the phenomenon that occurs after entering the body into three steps."
Bernhard held up a finger.
"The first step, which is the initial stage of the infection, first attacks the human's white blood cells, destroying the white blood cells' perception, causing the infected's body to lose the protection of the white blood cells. Then, the infected's blood will change and become more and more viscous."
"Moreover, this virus also likes to attack connective tissue, which is mainly composed of collagen. It proliferates in large quantities here, and then the infected person's skin will liquefy and necrotic from the bottom, forming blisters that burst with a touch, and symptoms of bleeding …"
Upon hearing this, Chen Chen turned to the third page and saw that a black patient's face was densely covered with hundreds of blood blisters. Even his face could not be seen clearly.
"Next is the second step."
Bernhard continued, "The patient will bleed non-stop. Mouth, gums, breast, eyes … No matter how small the pores are, they will start to ooze blood. This is because after the white blood cells, the blood cells will also be killed. The cells will be split by the virus and the organelles will be scattered everywhere. The only thing left is the virus that will split the cells everywhere in the blood …"
"This speed will happen within a few days because this is the power of a virulent virus."
Bernhard said and spread his hands. "Next is the third step, which is also the last step of the infected person's life.
"At this time, the infected person's mouth will begin to rot. The tongue and necrotic organs will be coughed out when he coughs. His liver will turn into a paste and his intestines will be filled with blood. It's as if his entire body is melting from the inside out...
"Moreover, their nerves will also begin to necrotic, and they will appear sluggish. Only at this point will the patient gradually die."
Chen Chen flipped to the end and saw that it was full of autopsy drawings of corpses.
"Sure enough, it's a guaranteed Ebola death."
Chen Chen closed the report. "Post this on the homepage of our company's website and promote it to the world. Now, let's talk about something more direct. Have we found the incubation period of the virus and the treatment?"
Bernhard immediately shook his head when he heard this and said regretfully, "According to our investigation, the current incubation period has increased to seven days. We suspect that the incubation period of BE-006 is similar to other Ebola viruses, up to 20 days."
"This is really bad news."
Chen Chen's expression became more solemn. The longer the incubation period, the further the virus could spread and the greater the threat it posed to human civilization.
"As for treatment methods, we've only tried two methods for now, the NPC1 blocker therapy and conventional symptomatic treatment."
Another professor explained, "The Ebola virus needs to enter the cell nucleus through NPC1 to replicate itself. Once the NPC1 protein blocks the transport of cholesterol, the disease will be significantly suppressed. After the first group of patients was injected with the NPC1 blocker, the disease was temporarily suppressed."
"However, the traditional symptomatic treatment is much less effective. Traditional symptomatic treatment includes electrolyte fluid oral rehydration and intravenous infusion, repair lost platelets to prevent bleeding, maintain blood oxygen content, and so on.
"Currently, the mortality rate of traditional symptomatic treatment is around thirty-five percent."
Chen Chen did not say anything because he understood that the mortality rate of traditional treatment was not high only because the disease had not reached the late stage yet.
The longer it was delayed, the higher the mortality rate would be.
"It seems that the NPC1 blocker therapy is the most effective treatment for the Ebola virus."
Evans added, "The only drawback is that the NPC1 blocker therapy will cause the patient to develop Niemann-Pick's disease. The cost is too high."
"There's nothing we can do about it."
Chen Chen said solemnly, "Right, when can our company start researching the vaccine?"
"About half a month to a month later, when we fully understand the nature of the virus."
Evans thought for a moment and estimated, "After half a month, we can roughly estimate the mortality rate of the epidemic. Also, some international assistance will arrive. That's when the real counterattack will begin.
"Also, there will be some patients who have developed antibodies and recovered on their own. At that time, we can use their serum to treat the virus. In other words, what we need to do now is to try to prevent the spread of the epidemic within a month."
"Very well."
Chen Chen nodded. "Don't worry on your side. Although I can't guarantee that the virus will not spread into Eco Science City, I can at least guarantee that once any epidemic is discovered, it will be immediately suppressed. I'll definitely give you a stable research environment."
After giving everyone another round of encouragement, Chen Chen took a live virus strain of BE-006 and left the research center.
Chen Chen would conduct another round of research on this live virus strain in the Spire laboratory. After all, the facilities in the Spire laboratory were more advanced than the level-4 biosafety laboratory in the research center.
Moreover, the Spire laboratory also had top genius scientists such as Hannibal and Li Lei. In addition, Chen Chen would also let Little X participate in this research.
Although it was not creative, with Little X's computing and micromanipulation abilities, it could easily analyze the gene map of the virus and use complex gene editing techniques such as CRISPR-Cas9.
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