Rebirth 1977 Great Era

Chapter 1328 Discovering the Source of Infection: Patient Zero, the Peddler (Bonus Chapter for Monthly Tickets)

"Brother Fang, the decoction for clearing heat that I just brewed has already been distributed to the kids in the observation area. I divided the bezoar powder between Anton and me; one group is keeping it for blowing into the throat, and the other group is ground into powder and mixed into the ointment for external application, which is perfect for treating rashes," Li Hui said to Fang Yan as she came over.

“Well done.” Fang Yan replied, glancing at the busy people around him, then thought for a moment and continued:

"Prepare two more pots of reed root water. Most of the babies who will be brought in later will be dehydrated. Give some to the parents first to stabilize their condition."

Li Hui responded and then went back to her work.

Next, Li Ping and several other people ran over. She said to Fang Yan, Wang Yuchuan, and the other professors:

"This is a doctor from our clinic. They came over as soon as they heard the notification. Now, if there's anything that needs to be done, they can help us."

Wang Yuchuan glanced at them and asked:

Traditional Chinese medicine or Western medicine?

“Yes, we have them all!” Li Ping said.

Wang Yuchuan looked at Fang Yan and waved his hand, indicating that he could arrange things as he pleased.

Anyway, these people are all mediocre doctors, and there's not much they can do to help. Just let them do some simple tasks.

Fang Yan noticed that some people still had mud on their hands and trousers, clearly indicating that they had just been working in the fields and had only come over from their respective brigades after hearing the loudspeaker announcement.

He thought for a moment and then gave instructions to these people:

"You all stay here. Someone will be here soon. When they arrive, you will be responsible for maintaining order at the scene."

"Is it really that simple?" Li Ping asked Fang Yan.

“I haven’t explained in detail yet!” Fang Yan said.

"Remember these rules, and you must follow them." Fang Yan took two steps forward, his gaze sweeping over the faces of each clinic doctor, and after a moment's thought, he said:

"First, everyone who comes, regardless of age, should line up outside the lime line over there, with at least three steps between them. They are not allowed to crowd together or push forward. Secretary Zhou has already marked out a passage, so you should stand by the rope and keep watch."

He raised his hand and pointed towards the bamboo pole rope that Zhou Dahai had just pulled up, where the commune members were using lime to fill in the blurry markings.

A male doctor wearing an old military cap immediately nodded: "Don't worry, Dr. Fang, we can maintain order."

"Second, the registration information must be detailed." Fang Yan took a stack of blank paper and a pencil from the consultation table and handed them over. "Name, which village, whether you have been in contact with the confirmed child, whether you have been to the old well to fetch water, how many days you have had a fever, all of these must be written clearly, not a single item can be omitted. After writing, separate them by village, Hongjing Village, Lijiazhuang, and Xipo Village each belong to their own, so that it is convenient for us to count."

A doctor in a faded white coat took the pen and paper and asked hesitantly, "What if some parents can't explain their contact history?"

"Let them stand in the observation area first." Fang Yan tilted his head towards the makeshift canvas tent. "There are students watching over there. Give them masks first and teach them how to cover their mouths and noses. We'll ask them one by one when we're free. Remember, don't let those who can't answer their questions get together with the confirmed cases."

He paused, then pointed to the coal stove where medicine was being decocted not far away: "Third, once the reed root water is ready, give some to the parents in line, half a small bowl to each of them, and tell them to drink it first, as it can soothe their throats and prevent dehydration. But please don't give your children any other medicines. The medicines here are all prescribed according to the symptoms, and if you make a mistake, it could be fatal."

Li Ping added from the side, "Yes, you are in charge of registration, maintaining order, and serving soup. Don't interfere with the medical treatment. Just listen to Dr. Fang and the others' arrangements."

The doctors understood now. The doctor in the military cap handed paper and pen to the person next to him and rolled up his muddy sleeves: "Okay, let's do it the way Dr. Fang said! We'll divide the work: two of us will maintain order, two will register people, and the rest will distribute the reed root water. We'll make sure there are no mistakes."

After arranging things here, Fang Yan went back to work. Although the scene was busy, thanks to her organizational skills, it was still orderly and well-organized. Everyone had their own tasks to do, and it didn't seem chaotic.

After a while, the sound of a truck horn could be heard in the distance.

Everyone looked up and saw the first truck rushing down the embankment, its bed packed with parents holding children, the canvas billowing in the wind.

Zhou Dahai quickly led several villagers to the village entrance: "Quick! Give us a hand! Carefully lift the child down!"

As soon as the truck came to a stop, the parents eagerly jumped out.

Leading the pack was a woman in a floral print blouse, clutching a boy with his eyes closed, crying and rushing towards them:
"Doctor, help! Please save my child! He's so feverish he doesn't recognize anyone!"

Dialect quickly waved:

"Bring him here! Bring him here!"

Upon hearing the dialect, the people from the clinic rushed over, brought the patient over, and arranged for others to line up in an orderly manner.

I took a boy who was a little over three years old from the woman. He was burning hot to the touch. The boy's head was tilted in his mother's arms, his eyelashes were covered with fine beads of sweat, and his lips were so dry and cracked that they were bleeding.

"Lay him flat!" Fang Yan ordered in a deep voice, his fingers already on the boy's wrist. The pulse was weak and rapid, flickering like a candle in the wind. His heart sank. He immediately lifted the boy's collar; the red rash on his neck had turned dark purple, and in some places, blisters had formed. "Anton! Bezoar powder! Tongue depressor!"

Anton, who was waiting nearby with the medicine bottle and equipment, immediately handed them over upon hearing this. Fang Yan pressed down on the boy's chin, and thrust the tongue depressor into his throat. By the light of the sunlight, he could see the situation inside, and his brows furrowed even more: the pseudomembrane on the back of the throat was as thick as a layer of old cotton wool, and the edges had begun to peel off. It made a "hoarse" sound when breathing, which was a sign of airway obstruction.

"Family members, hold the child's shoulders!" The words in the dialect had barely left her lips when the woman immediately gripped the boy's arm tightly, tears streaming down her face as she slammed them onto the examination table. He took the horn-shaped blowpipe, scooped up half a spoonful of bezoar powder, and blew it forcefully three times into the boy's throat. The moment the powder touched the artificial membrane, the boy coughed violently, spitting out a mouthful of thick, blood-tinged phlegm onto the white cloth, and his breathing finally became somewhat easier.

"How many days has the fever lasted? Has there been any convulsion or vomiting?" Fang Yan asked urgently while instructing the student next to her to give the child reed root water.

"It's been four days!" The woman sobbed, unable to catch her breath. "The rash started appearing the day before yesterday, and last night she had seizures twice. The elders in my family said... said there's no hope... We came here after hearing the announcement..."

"Nonsense!" Wang Yuchuan, who was standing nearby, was furious when he heard this.

Wang Yuchuan's angry shout silenced the surrounding noise for a moment. The parents in line subconsciously stopped talking, and even the doctor at the clinic paused what he was doing.

“This is scarlet fever entering the camp! If we had arrived an hour later, the false membrane would have blocked the airway, and even a god couldn’t have saved him!” He turned to stare at the woman, his voice full of heartache. “What does an old woman know about medicine? The child’s convulsions and rashes are the body’s cries for help! And you just watched as it dragged on for four days?”

The woman trembled as she was scolded, tears streaming down her face: "We want treatment too... The elders in our family are barefoot doctors, and they say it's 'rheumatism,' there's no cure, and they told us to prepare for our funerals... We cried all night holding our baby, and this morning we heard on the radio that there were doctors from the city here, so we frantically begged the driver to let us have a ride..."

"Barefoot doctors?" Wang Yuchuan's anger subsided slightly, then he sighed. "You can't entirely blame them. There's a lack of medical care and medicine in the countryside. It's good enough if they can even recognize 'rheavenly sore throat,' but you shouldn't have believed they were 'hopeless'!" He looked at the parents around him, his voice unconsciously rising:
"Listen up, everyone! This disease is not incurable! As long as you come early and get treatment early, your child can get better! Don't believe those foolish things like 'just get through it' or 'there's no hope,' which are jeopardizing your child's life!"

At this moment, the prescription slip beside him reminded him:

"Wait, how many days is this?"

“Four days!” Fang Yan replied. He added:

"The one that lasted the longest."

The prescription was addressed to the woman, who asked:

"Which village are you from?"

“From Xipo Village,” the woman replied.

The prescription asks:
Have you been in contact with any other children who have a fever before?

The woman shook her head, somewhat bewildered.

It's obvious he didn't notice that.

At this point, Fang Yan realized that Lao Fang was looking for the source of infection.

"Go ask the people outside!" Fang Yan pointed outside to him. He was too busy right now, otherwise he would go out and look for them too.

Fang Yaozhong nodded and went outside to ask the others.

As soon as I reached the registration desk, I heard the female doctor in her faded white coat checking information with an old man, her voice filled with doubt:

"Sir, you said your child has had a fever for five days?"

He paused, then immediately moved closer.

The old man was holding a girl who looked to be about six years old. Her eyelids were drooping, her face was flushed, and the rash on her neck had subsided, but left a faint pigmentation.

"That's right!" the old man sighed, his rough knuckles stroking the girl's hair. "She woke up with a fever five days ago, saying her throat hurt. I thought she had caught a chill during the night, so I gave her some ginger and brown sugar water, but it didn't help. The next day, these little red spots appeared. My husband was so worried he cried. We went to the village's barefoot doctor, who also said it was 'rheumatism' and gave her some herbal medicine, but she still had a fever after drinking it."

Five days ago?

The doctor pressed further, asking, "Which morning exactly? Before the fever started, did the child play with children from other villages? Or fetch water from the old well?"

The old man frowned and thought for a moment:

“It was the morning before yesterday… no, it was five days ago! The afternoon before, she went to play at the east end of the village with the boy next door. That boy is from Hongjing Village. He said he was going to fetch water and asked my child to come along to see the fish. When she came back that night, she said she felt unwell, and the next day she had a fever.”

"The kid from Hongjing Village? How is that kid doing now?" Fang Yaozhong's eyes lit up, and he pressed for an even closer answer.

"I don't know," the old man shook his head. "I only saw him once that day. Later, I heard that there was also a disease in Hongjing Village, so we didn't dare to visit each other. My child had a fever for four days, and yesterday the fever started to subside, but he was just listless. This morning, I heard on the radio that there was a doctor here, so I came here as soon as possible."

Fang Yaozhong immediately turned to the female doctor registering the case: "Write this down! Xipo Village, six-year-old child, fever for five days, contact with a boy from Hongjing Village the day before the onset of illness, the boy had gone to the old well to fetch water." He then turned to the old man and asked, "Grandpa, do you remember that boy from Hongjing Village's name? Where does he live?"

The old man racked his brains for a long time, "I think his name was... what was it again? Gou Dan? I can't quite remember, anyway, his family lived right next to the well in Hongjing Village."

Fang Yaozhong immediately beckoned to the male doctor wearing a military cap:

"Quickly take someone to Hongjing Village and find a boy named Gou Dan who lives by the old well. Ask him if he also had a fever and rash, and if his symptoms appeared earlier than this child's! If you find him, bring him here immediately!"

"Alright!" The doctor in the military cap didn't dare to delay. He immediately grabbed a companion and ran to the bicycle parked at the village entrance. It was the bicycle they had ridden on their way here, and it came in handy now.

Fang Yaozhong strode back to the consultation table and said to Wang Yuchuan and Fang Yan:

"We've made progress. This girl had a fever for five days and was the first one discovered so far. Before she fell ill, she had been in contact with a boy from Hongjing Village, and that boy had been to the old well. It's highly likely that the boy contracted the disease first and then transmitted it to the girl, which then spread to both villages. In addition, the shared old well contributed to the rapid spread of the epidemic."

Wang Yuchuan had just finished taking the pulse of a suspected case and nodded upon hearing this:

"This clue is crucial. If we can find that kid named Gou Dan, we can determine whether the source of infection is related to Lao Jing, and we can also follow the trail to find more contacts."

Fang Yan was changing the damp towel used to cool down the feverish boy from before when she heard this and breathed a sigh of relief:

"We've finally found the source. Once we find Gou Dan and find out when he first fell ill and his contact history, we'll be able to completely clarify the transmission chain."

As they were talking, the sound of a bicycle bell came from afar. The doctor wearing a military cap rode his bicycle back quickly, followed by a villager who was carrying a boy in his arms. The boy's red rash had subsided most of its color, but he still looked listless. This was Gou Dan, the boy from Hongjing Village that the old man had mentioned.

"Dr. Fang! Professor Wang! We've found him!" The doctor wearing a military cap stopped the car and shouted breathlessly, "This is Gou Dan! His parents said he had a fever and developed a rash seven days ago, but he's just getting better now! He said that seven days ago, when he went to the old well to fetch water, he saw a peddler from out of town drinking water by the well and even exchanged a few words with him!"

"Seven days ago? A peddler from out of town?" Fang Yaozhong and Fang Yan exchanged a glance, both seeing confirmation in each other's eyes. This Gou Dan was the first person to fall ill in this cluster outbreak, and that peddler from out of town was very likely the initial source of infection.

In 1978, during the early stages of reform and opening up, economic policies were not yet fully liberalized, and individual businesses were still strictly controlled. Peddler activities always teetered on the edge of "permission" and in a gray area of ​​"speculation and profiteering".

The demand for small commodities such as needles and thread, hair clips and buttons, and general merchandise has always existed in rural areas, but state-run supply and marketing cooperatives and commune sales points often have limited product range and insufficient coverage, especially in remote villages where the shortage of goods is even greater.

This demand created a "living space" for peddlers: they mostly existed as a "side job during the off-season for farming," carrying peddler's baskets on their shoulders and shaking rattles in their hands, going from village to village selling small commodities.

They are essentially the same as the black market dealers in the city.

They might even be a group of people.

Peddlers travel long distances from village to village, often relying on wells and ponds for water. If a peddler carries a virus, their interactions with villagers, such as asking for directions or selling goods, inevitably involve close contact. At that time, rural areas lacked basic knowledge of disease prevention, so if a peddler carried a pathogen, it could easily spread through droplets or contact.

By this point, Fang Yan and his team had finally gained some insight into the disease.

However, if the peddler's goods are a source of drugs, then the situation is serious, and several surrounding communes could very well suffer.

At this moment, Wang Yuchuan slapped his thigh:
"Oh no! Did we run into the people going to the other commune too?!"

PS: I got another 100 monthly votes. This time, the 4000-word chapter is finished, so the accounts are even.

(End of this chapter)