The night was hazy, and coughs kept coming 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 empty. 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 taken away, and the network signal was okay.
So he can also play with his mobile phone to relieve his boredom.
Shen Haoxuan pressed his phone with both hands and sent a message to his friend Liu Hui on WeChat:
"It's really unlucky that I got pneumonia and was quarantined."
"I was supposed to go to the general ward, but the doctor suddenly said 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, look forward to the future, come on!"
"Haha, cough..." Shen Haoxuan couldn't help laughing when he saw it. He felt that his body was much better. He used to look forward to a few more days during the summer vacation, but now he looks forward to the university starting soon. At this time, his phone vibrated when he received a WeChat message.
, he saw it was from Liu Hui:
"Oops, I started coughing in the evening and now my fever is 39 degrees."
"Maybe you were infected with pneumonia? Isn't it?"
"My mother gave me cold medicine. Do I need to go to the hospital now?"
Looking at these messages, Shen Haoxuan felt sorry for his friend, and muttered uneasily, "Am I the one who infected me?" Apart from Liu Hui, could there be anyone else?
He thought of his parents, several other friends, and so many people at the comic exhibition...
Don't think blindly. Shen Haoxuan coughed and told himself, there is no such serious infection, not even SARS.
It's just pneumonia. The doctor can take care of it and it should be cured in 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 it weren't for the fact that Jiangxing Town Hospital usually doesn't have so many patients and has a large number of vacant wards, it wouldn't be able to cope with tonight's outbreak. But every patient has to be isolated separately, and the wards are still not enough. We are still in the hospital this night
Everyone is busy.
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"?
Not to mention town-level hospitals, even in top tertiary hospitals, Legionnaires' disease is often misdiagnosed as common pneumonia. Because it is not a common disease, ordinary doctors usually lack awareness of it, and the clinical manifestations of Legionnaires' disease are complex and routine examinations are lacking.
Specificity can only be confirmed by serological testing for Legionella antibodies.
"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, and then she learned that the CDC had issued prevention and control documents a few days ago, telling people to be careful about Legionnaires' disease. But prevention and treatment documents always come one after another, and prevention and control work has been done. The hospital's air conditioner
The 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 was reported, an expert team sent by the Municipal Disease Control and Prevention to conduct an epidemiological investigation arrived.
When they were greeted in the hospital lobby, all the medical staff in the infectious disease department were stunned. They saw team leader He Fenghe, deputy team leader Li Wen and the other two people wearing a full-body white protective suit and a full-body mask.
Respiratory protector, no skin is 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 worsen and he was already experiencing symptoms of confusion.
A large ball of bloody phlegm came out, 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 the time was too rushed, there were too few test results to support, and it was late at night, so the efficiency would not be very high. If it hadn't been for the recent outbreak of Legionnaires' disease around the world, and there were more documents from higher authorities, his words would have been immediately suppressed.
return.
Now because he reported suspected Legionnaires' disease, and Huang Lin, the doctor on duty, agreed with this opinion, 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 detection and effectively deal with such
Public health emergency.
However, the town hospital has limited conditions and does not have a PCR laboratory. Either the samples must be shipped out or the equipment must be shipped 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 the superiors paid great attention to Legionnaires' disease that they 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 kit 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 in the emergency department and several nurses 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...
PCR results confirmed Legionella pneumophila!
As soon as the test results came out, He Feng, who had not slept all night, was actually a little happy. The pathogen was within the known range. Although the disease started quickly and progressed rapidly, treatment and control of Legionnaires' disease should be able to quell the epidemic. Legionnaires' disease
Although bacteria can be airborne, they rely heavily on aerosols as carriers...
Just when He Feng was feeling lucky, without any warning, he suddenly coughed due to a sudden strange feeling in his throat, and his lungs felt stuffy.
For a moment, He Feng stood in the small laboratory, his face pale and a little dizzy. All the experimenters around him were stunned.
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 infectivity can penetrate level three protective clothing... This is not the known Legionella pneumophila, it may be a new type of Legionella that is extremely contagious...
I am afraid that most of the visitors at the comic exhibition that Shen Haoxuan attended were infected.