Chapter 4
The huge conference room in the city hall was now overcrowded, and the tense meeting was still proceeding in an orderly manner amidst the chaos.
The staff in each department looked nervous and were busy. A few doctors who had just come from the hospital and were still wearing white coats were arguing fiercely with the person in charge of the Ministry of Health. The professors and doctors of Jiangdong Medical University were analyzing the things in their hands with serious faces. material.
It was a noisy mess like a vegetable market.
"Secretary Li is here."
A handsome young man in a suit and leather tie walked into the conference room, and all the people in white coats sitting around the conference table stood up.
Secretary Li nodded, adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses, and said: "Secretary Jin went to the provincial party committee to hold a research meeting yesterday and has not returned to the city yet. The mayor will be there soon. How is the situation? Our comrades from the Ministry of Health, hospitals and related work Can the personnel stabilize the situation? ”
"This is not an ordinary infectious virus." The gray-haired dean of Yuanjiang No. 1 Hospital shook his head with a heavy expression. "It is most likely a mutated influenza. The symptoms are similar to bird flu, but it can be transmitted from person to person through the air. The infection rate and mortality rate are very high. It is an unprecedented high. Now major hospitals are flooded with a large number of patients and the situation is critical.”
"Airborne infection, human-to-human transmission?" The thick and majestic voice was that of Mayor Liu Xie. Surrounded by several black suits, he strode into the conference room. "Has the data been compiled? What is the infection rate? The mortality rate. How much is it? Do you have an emergency plan?”
Airborne infection sounds scary, but Liu Xie knows that this is a common misunderstanding in medical knowledge, and the power of airborne infection is often exaggerated.
It is true that airborne transmission is an efficient and rapid way of virus transmission, but the virus is very fragile. When exposed to the air with its simple structure, it can easily lose its activity due to low resistance to ultraviolet rays, oxidizing substances, etc. "Airborne transmission" in medicine mostly refers to droplet transmission. Pathogens are present in the mucus on the surface of the respiratory mucosa or in fragments of ciliated epithelial cells. They are ejected from the nasopharynx when the patient exhales, sneezes, howls, or snores. Large droplets of mucus containing pathogens become suspended in the air and then enter the body of an infected person.
In other words, this method of transmission can only cause a large number of infections in a closed and crowded environment, but it is difficult to threaten others as long as it spans a few meters in an open area.
Therefore, Liu Xie is more concerned about the fatality rate and infection rate.
The director of the first hospital looked bitter and replied: "The infection rate is at least 50%, and the mortality rate... is 100%."
"One hundred percent?" Liu Xie's thick eyebrows knitted, "It has been eight or nine hours since the first death of the patient, and there is still no effective treatment? So have you found the source of the disease? The patient's infection channel Have you figured it out? It’s just airborne infection and has nothing to do with water, food, etc.”
"These are not clear yet, but one thing is certain. This H7N11-like virus - H7N11 is a non-existent influenza virus named according to the naming rules of the Ministry of Health. This H7N11-like virus has a strong and irreversible destructive effect on the human body. , and it is extremely infective and survivable," Liang Helin, chief physician of the first hospital, said as he handed over a stack of reports.
"Hundreds of patients have died after unsuccessful rescue efforts. Serums are being developed, but effective antibodies have not yet been found. As for the source of the disease... there are too many patients, and I am afraid we cannot think in conventional ways." Liang and Lin paused, biting He gritted his teeth and said with great determination, "The cause of the mutation is not yet known. But now many Yuanjiang citizens have fallen into a state of panic. Many people may choose to flee Yuanjiang. If some of them are virus carriers... I think if there are virus carriers leaving Yuanjiang for other cities, they may very well spread the virus. Take it to other cities, so I would like to ask you——"
"Block the Yuanjiang River!"
For an instant, there was silence in the conference room, and you could hear a needle drop.
Yuanjiang is not a small town. This typical Jiangnan town has become a quasi-first-tier city in China after decades of rapid construction after full opening up, and is known as the "Second Provincial Capital" in Jiangdong Province.
A hasty blockade of such a big city will cause huge economic losses to the country and its people, and will also cause various adverse effects. Such consequences are definitely not something that a chief physician—or even a mayor—can bear easily.
But...
Such a highly infectious and deadly virus can be transmitted from person to person!
The patients who have begun to die have only been ill for a minimum of one day. What does this mean? If the high flow of people in modern society continues, millions of citizens in Yuanjiang may all be infected within a few days! What makes people even more frightened is that... once all kinds of people who use Yuanjiang as a transit or go out or inflow bring the virus outside Yuanjiang, to Shanghai, to Shangjing...
Liu Xie clenched his fists. The seriousness of the matter exceeded his imagination. He asked again: "No special medicine? No treatment?"
"So far, no effective treatment has been found, and the development of specific drugs... may take some time."
It may take some time. How long is this time? A week? A month? In addition, after the drug is successfully developed and mass-produced and put into use, how much time will it take? If influenza spreads across the country with its strong contagiousness, how many people will lose their lives during the time it takes for the drug to be developed and put into use?
If special measures are not taken, the disease will spread on a large scale and cause a major epidemic, so the number of deaths is likely to be astronomical!
Liu Xie took a deep breath and issued the order slowly but firmly: "Develop a serum as soon as possible, find effective treatments, and force all confirmed patients and patients with suspected symptoms to be quarantined. The Telephone Propaganda Department will release flu news as appropriate to let people with colds pay attention." Go to the hospital for examination. Comrades in the field, I need you to compile a research report as quickly as possible. I want to call the Health Department and the Provincial Military Region to tell them about the situation here, and ask them to work with the Yuanjiang Yuan City Government to submit an emergency report to the higher level. Application - Blockade of Yuanjiang! ”
Everyone was stunned and looked at Liu Xie.
If Yuanjiang, a large city located in the hinterland of central China, is blocked, regardless of the final outcome of the infectious disease treatment, Liu Xie, as the person directly responsible, will be under great pressure, and may even be used by political opponents as a stain for criticism.
Liu Xie was able to give such a decisive order, showing great courage.
A young man standing next to Liu Xie narrowed his eyes and hesitated slightly. He was Liu Xie's nephew: Liu Yuanzhou. He is also a major member of Liu Xie's think tank and the most powerful second-in-command of the Municipal Security Department.
The Municipal Security Department is mainly responsible for the security and security tasks of city leaders when they live and carry out activities in the urban area, as well as the security of the surrounding areas for visiting important foreign guests.
To be able to stand in such an important position, Liu Yuanzhou relies on more than just relationships.
"Is it possible for infected patients to produce antibodies on their own? If antibody carriers appear in Yuanjiang City, effective serum should be easy to develop." Liu Yuanzhou raised a simple but critical question with a clear idea.
"Theoretically, it is possible." The person who responded this time was the president of the Second People's Hospital. The president of the Second People's Hospital nodded and sighed, "But in reality, this probability is not high. It is unlikely among tens of thousands of people." There may not necessarily be one. Moreover, patients who come to the hospital are generally seriously ill and have no possibility of producing antibodies on their own. Patients who produce antibodies will naturally recover and may treat their previous cold as a common cold. We won’t come to the hospital again, so how can we find it?”
"Check the medical records." Liu Yuanzhou said, "Everyone who comes to the hospital to see a doctor has a registration form. Pull out all the colds and check them one by one. Those who have similar symptoms and have not gone to any hospital for examination and treatment after the 24-hour incubation period are either dead. , or it is possible to produce antibodies on your own.”
"This... the feasibility should not be high." The other party shook his head, "The workload is too great and there are too many uncertain factors. The most difficult thing is that we do not have the ability to quickly confirm whether the target carries effective antibodies, so everyone has to spend a lot of time. It takes a long time to check and confirm, and it is very likely that the patients who have developed antibodies have never been to the hospital! Just relying on registration records is like finding a needle in a haystack.”
"Then continue to narrow down the possible scope through other ways. For example, based on your professional knowledge, what age group is most likely to produce antibodies?" Liu Yuanzhou asked.
"People between the ages of sixteen and forty have strong resistance, and the cells and tissues in their bodies are full of vitality, so they are more likely to produce antibodies."
"Find!" Liu Yuanzhou said resolutely, "Immediately set up a special professional team to conduct research and find effective screening methods. As long as someone has produced antibodies on his own, we must find it no matter how difficult it is! The lives of millions of people in Yuanjiang, It’s all in our hands!”
Liu Xie was not dissatisfied with Liu Yuanzhou's overreaching. Regardless of his identity as his nephew, Liu Xie was a leader who employed talents rather than nepotism. Sometimes he had to rely on the flexible thinking of these young people. and fighting spirit.
......... In the small student apartment, Yang Xiaoqian, who lives in a small apartment, still has no idea about this unprecedented epidemic. He and Yu Qian are discussing "seriously" how to save mankind.