Extreme germ phobia

Chapter 313 14.2%
The chaos in Xiushi Stew lasted for two whole days before it subsided, but whether things were chaotic or not was no longer relevant to Ouyang. After returning to Huatuo Ship, far from the city, the outside disturbances were as if they were isolated by an invisible barrier, having no effect on Ouyang whatsoever.

Everything returned to normal, and Ouyang continued his tedious and monotonous work, but he enjoyed it immensely and was very content with the peace and tranquility.

He had long been tired of the uncertain life in the epidemic area, and now he felt like he was returning to a simpler life.

A few days later, Ouyang received a notification as soon as he got up: assemble in the designated cabin immediately for a blood test.

The final friendly reminder in the notice: Do not eat anything, as this may affect the results.

Ou Yang immediately pulled Zhu Yiming up: "Let's go, let's go, let's go!"

Zhu Yiming scratched his head lazily: "Why the rush?"

"Finish the investigation early so we can eat early!" Ou Yang's reason was sincere and simple.

However, when the two arrived, there were already quite a few people ahead of them.

Ouyang quickly realized something was wrong: why were all the people who came immune?

A quick glance revealed Jiang Yuwei's familiar figure: "Hey, Sister Wei!"

Jiang Yuwei smiled and leaned closer: "You two are pretty fast!"

Zhu Yiming blurted out, "This kid missed you, didn't he? He wouldn't sleep himself or let anyone else sleep, and he insisted on dragging me along!"

Ou Yang pretended not to hear: "Sister Wei, are we the only ones getting physical exams? Those who aren't immune don't need to?"

“Yes!” Jiang Yuwei nodded.

Having confirmed his suspicions, Ouyang was somewhat confused, but he didn't think much of it, assuming that the research team was trying to find commonalities among immune individuals.

The examination was quite simple: first, a blood test, then a urine test, followed by surgical and internal medicine examinations, and various routine procedures.

There were only a few dozen people on the ship who were immune, and it was over in no time, so it didn't affect breakfast at all.

After the meal, Ou Yang and Zhu Yiming were about to change into their protective suits when they suddenly heard a long and loud whistle.

Not long after, a special transport ship stopped on the sea not far away, only a few dozen meters away from the Hua Tuo ship.

The Hua Tuo ship's daily supplies were all provided by special transport ships, and similar scenes would repeat themselves every once in a while, so Ou Yang didn't pay much attention to it.

However, today's situation was indeed somewhat special. After a while, the Hua Tuo ship suddenly started moving and slowly sailed toward the coast.

Furthermore, Ouyang and others received another notification: daily work was temporarily suspended, and everyone was to remain on standby!

Soon, the Hua Tuo ship docked, and not far away was an abandoned camp.

Then Lu Wei summoned all the immunized personnel ashore, inspected the camp, and rebuilt the outer defense line after confirming that there were no problems.

Once everything was ready, all infected individuals on board were transferred to the camp for isolation.

To prevent accidents, this work can only be performed by immunization personnel.

There weren't many infected people in the left section; only a few who happened to develop symptoms needed to be controlled during transit, while the others disembarked on their own.

The infected people in the right zone are more troublesome; they must be subdued first, put in restraint suits, and then carried off the ship.

If anesthesia were used, the process would undoubtedly be much simpler, but Zhou Jimin must have taken the wrong medication, as no anesthetic drugs were allowed during the transfer.

There was no other way but to rely on physical strength to subdue the targets and then send them ashore one by one.

It took a whole morning to clear out the quarantine area. After lunch, we carried out a thorough disinfection and cleaning, leaving no corner untouched.

What followed was even more baffling: a batch of prefabricated steel plates, plastic sheets, tempered glass, and other materials were delivered from a special transport ship and stacked on the helipad at the stern of the Hua Tuo ship.

A huge pile of high-end-looking door and window glass made Ou Yang's eyes widen in amazement.

What exactly are they trying to do?
Later that day, another ship arrived, bringing a group of professionals who, without taking a break, immediately entered the quarantine zone and began radical renovations to the two sections on the left and right!
The unisolated cabins were separated, and the unsealed areas were sealed off.

Not only the isolation area, but other cabins have also undergone corresponding modifications.

Ou Yang was even more confused. What was the point of drastically modifying the Hua Tuo ship at this time? And what was the point of deliberately moving the infected people ashore?

The renovation was completed faster than expected. Professional staff worked around the clock and finished all the work in just two days.

Upon re-entering the quarantine area, Ou Yang almost experienced blurred vision.

The transformed quarantine area bears no resemblance to its former self; the ground is spotless, and the lighting is soft and bright.

Clean, tidy, and cozy, it even gives you the feeling of being in an alien spaceship.

The following day, the infected individuals who had come ashore were officially moved back to the quarantine area.

Unlike before, each infected person now has a private room. Once the door is closed, it becomes a small space completely isolated from the outside world, where they eat, drink, and relieve themselves.

The right ward is fine, it's practically no different from a prison anyway; but the left ward is different. It used to be like a small community, but now it's been divided into tiny spaces like anthills, which many people find uncomfortable.

No problem, the ship's officers had in-depth exchanges with each of the infected people in the left wing. Two days later, another medical ship arrived. Some of the infected people were transferred out, and others moved into the left wing. The number of infected people in the two wings combined was over a hundred!
Zhou Jimin originally only wanted to conduct a small-scale experiment with a group of ten people, but after the higher-ups learned of his plan, they immediately decided to expand the scale of the experiment.

Zhou Jimin was more than happy to accept it, so naturally he had no objections.

During this period, another ship delivered a large quantity of medical equipment and medicines.

Even if Ouyang was slow to realize, he knew that the Hua Tuo was making some kind of preparation and was about to make a big move.

But he never expected the changes to happen so quickly!
Half an hour later, the experiment officially began.

It was only at this point that Ouyang learned that the Hua Tuo was about to conduct a stem cell gene recombination transplantation experiment.

He kept saying, "Wow, I can't believe they came up with such a solution!"

Zhou Jimin personally led the team to inject mobilizing agents into all those with mild infections and arranged for dedicated personnel to monitor changes in data after the injections.

As before, the focus is on those with severe infections.

The bodies of severely infected individuals have already begun to become fungal, with a large number of hyphae growing inside them. Subduing them is not difficult; the difficulty lies in how to inject the medication and whether it can achieve the desired effect after injection.

It took a lot of effort to complete the first stage of injections until midnight.

Even Ouyang felt exhausted, not to mention the others. After returning to the dormitory, Zhu Yiming fell asleep without saying a word.

They were unaware that a group of ordinary people on the ship, led by Zhou Jimin, were also receiving mobilization injections at the same time; they were all participants in the general testing group.

A few days later, the control group met the criteria for stem cell isolation and began stem cell extraction, entering the reverse transcription phase. However, the situation was not ideal for those with mild infections, necessitating an increased dosage and a supplementary injection.

Needless to say, those with severe infections are practically useless. Analysts believe that even with increased dosage, the minimum standard for extracting stem cells cannot be met.

The only solution is a bone marrow aspiration!
Without hesitation, Zhou Jimin immediately made arrangements. Several immunization personnel, including Ou Yang, subdued a severely infected person, secured them in a custom-made chair, and then medical staff punched holes to extract the contents.

The study found that severely infected individuals could be divided into two groups: one group consisted of individuals who had recently lost consciousness and whose bacterial growth was not high, allowing for the extraction of sufficient stem cells from their bone marrow; the other group consisted of individuals whose condition had progressed to a critical stage, with mycelia growing even in their bone marrow, making it impossible to extract stem cells.

In the latter case, the experiment must be abandoned, while in the former case, it is given full priority and reverse transcription experiments are carried out first.

Aside from the two situations mentioned above, there are several other special infected individuals in the quarantine area, ranging from mild to severe.

They don't need mobilizing agents or bone marrow aspirations; instead, they undergo chemotherapy from the beginning, which destroys their own immune system.

That's right, these infected individuals have been successfully matched with immune individuals and will soon receive stem cell transplants from the immune individuals!
Ouyang felt this step was completely unnecessary, because the patient's body had been turned upside down by the phantom lung bacteria and had little to no immunity left.

Of course, these are just some immature ideas.

At this point, the preliminary preparations were basically completed, and the immunization team, including Ou Yang, suddenly felt much more relaxed.

The focus of the experiment shifted to the research department, where researchers devoted themselves to their work, working around the clock to perform various separation and processing of stem cells, and finally used a virus to embed that special gene into the stem cells.

"This is a war without gunfire, and the key to victory is in your hands!" Xu Yi gave the researchers high praise.

Allogeneic transplantation was the first step, with three infected individuals (two severely infected and one mildly infected) receiving stem cells from other immune individuals.

"Unfortunately, we couldn't find an infected person who matched Ouyang's type." Zhou Jimin said with great regret.

"That's good enough," Xu Yi said. "Finding three in such a short time is already quite impressive!"

In order to find these infected individuals, a wide-ranging search was conducted, not only among compatriots but also with the help of the Miguel Palace to find suitable infected individuals.

The chances of finding a match are too low. In this vast sea of ​​people, where can we find a suitable one?

Unfortunately, they had no choice but to lower their standards and first look for immune individuals, then search for infected individuals among the immediate family members of the immune individuals.

By changing our approach and thinking outside the box, we found a suitable candidate very quickly.

Although it was not quite the same as the original plan, the original intention of allogeneic transplantation was simply to collect more research data.

Are you kidding me? During the pandemic, immune people can record their blood type matching, but where do infected people record theirs?
While such research is not entirely meaningless, its likelihood of practical application is shockingly low!
A few days later, the autologous transplantation began.

Regardless of whether the patient is severely ill or mildly ill, the transplant will be performed on whoever's stem cells have been cultured.

As the number of transplants continued to increase, Ou Yang and others became increasingly busy, feeding patients water and medicine, and meticulously recording the condition of those infected.

Zhu Yiming couldn't help but sigh, "This is about the best I can do when it comes to taking care of my own parents!"

"Look at your pathetic self!" Ou Yang glanced at him sideways and continued feeding the next infected person.

Things are different now; even feeding them is much more troublesome.

To ensure safety, once the two people enter the isolation area, they must wear full protective gear at all times, and are not allowed to take it off no matter how uncomfortable they feel.

The food products are also specially processed.

Day after day, three weeks later, Zhou Jimin announced that the first batch of infected patients had been successfully transplanted!
There were three people in total, all of whom had mild symptoms.

However, a successful transplant is only the first step; whether the recipient has acquired immunity still needs to be observed.

For some time afterward, people successfully exited the cabin every day, but they did not stay on the Hua Tuo ship; instead, they transferred to another ship to continue their observation.

The vacated cabins were quickly filled with new infected patients, and all the experimental procedures were repeated.

A full month later, the research team finally reached its first conclusion: severely infected individuals who underwent stem cell allogeneic transplantation did not acquire immunity!

However, there was only one severely infected person in this allogeneic transplant, and there were no more experimental subjects, so this result is not authoritative.

Even patients with severe infections who underwent autologous transplantation did not experience any improvement in their condition.

Zhou Jimin can finally confirm that stem cell transplantation is ineffective for severely infected patients!
Undoubtedly, this very disappointing news means that none of the severely infected individuals will be able to receive treatment.

Ou Yang kept muttering to himself: Are severely infected people so easy to treat? Researching this is a complete waste of resources!
Only an outsider like him would have such an idea.

Even if the experiment succeeds, it is impossible to use this technology to save severely infected people.

There's no other reason than that there are too many people who don't cooperate, so it's impossible to take care of them all. Only certain special individuals can receive special treatment.

The experimental situation of those with mild infections is also not optimistic, with the condition of most people still worsening.

The tests revealed that although the stem cell transplant was successful, the gene did not spread throughout the body, but only existed in the stem cells and some blood cells.

Zhou Jimin was devastated, as if he had lost his parents.

The human cell is a very complex process. One cell cycle takes about 120 to 200 days and is completely renewed about every 6 to 7 years.

Even if the transplant is successful, it will take enough time for the gene to spread throughout the body.

Those infected simply cannot wait that long.

At this point, the experiment can be declared a failure.

Unwilling to give up, Zhou Jimin extracted the corresponding cells from the infected person and placed them together with the phantom lung bacteria. The result showed that the phantom lung bacteria did not show any signs of being inhibited.

The same result was obtained when this experiment was conducted using cells extracted from immune individuals.

Zhou Jimin was completely numb, but he quickly realized that he had gone astray, changed his approach, and extracted immune cells to conduct the same experiment.

This time, there has finally been new progress: the immune cells of immunized personnel do indeed have a certain inhibitory effect on Pneumocystis jirovecii.

He immediately adjusted his experimental approach, abandoning stem cell transplantation and instead using technical means to preferentially implant gene fragments into the immune system.

The new technology remains ineffective against severe infections and its effect on mild infections is also unsatisfactory. Less than 15% of those with mild infections have had their symptoms suppressed, and these are all people who have just been infected.

The remaining 85 percent remain unchanged.

Although it cannot be called a success, the 14.2% success rate is already an unparalleled and enormous improvement, marking a significant milestone in humanity's fight against Pneumocystis jirovecii.

(End of this chapter)