For Hong Kong, this winter of 2013 is no different from previous winters, people still go to and from work, numbly watching the news in the TV broadcast, and the nonsense is nothing more than those things, either the book is shouting there, or China and South Korea are there to protest and condemn, and when it finally calms down, the North Korean golden fat man is going to come out and jump again, and the United States is busy with the Middle East, and then run to Asia to walk around.

It seems that the situation is tense, but if you look closely, you will find that they are actually grinding their mouths, depending on whose mouth is powerful, and at most they are showing off their muscles. How can ordinary people care about these political events, only their own wallets are the most important.

On December 11, five guests from a four-star hotel in Hong Kong were admitted to the hospital for emergency treatment with symptoms such as high fever, cough, difficulty breathing, and pneumonia. A day later, in the same hotel, more than a dozen patients with similar symptoms were taken to the hospital for emergency treatment, and after using various antipyretic methods and antibiotics, there was no improvement.

On the evening of the 12th, the disease was confirmed to be the H5N1 variant, and its infectious ability is much higher than that of the original H5N1.

On the 13th, various hospitals in Hong Kong successively sent patients with high fevers that did not go away, and the patients' occupations included waiters, airport staff, and nurses and doctors, and by 12 noon on the 14th, a total of 126 suspected new influenza patients appeared in various hospitals.

At this time, the flu contagion incident, which broke out too quickly, finally attracted the attention of the media, and various media in Hong Kong marked all kinds of appalling headlines on the front page of the next day -- "The flu outbreak caused 100 hospitalizations", "The new flu infected hundreds of people in three days", "The flu outbreak has killed five people, and the previous vaccines were basically ineffective?" 》

At noon on the 14th, the Centre for Health Protection of the Department of Health issued a Level 4 warning that a new type of influenza virus had been circulating from person to person and causing a persistent outbreak.

This warning immediately caused a lot of panic in Hong Kong, and I don't know where the vinegar came out to eliminate the influenza virus.

The spread of the flu did not reach Hong Kong, on the 14th, a hospital in London admitted a patient with a high fever, which did not attract anyone's attention, but in the next ten hours, more than 320 patients with high fever were admitted to major hospitals one after another, which immediately triggered the network of the British defense monitoring mechanism, and after the medical departments at all levels reported to the Infectious Disease Control Center, the case samples were then sent to the public health laboratory service center for identification.

Within 24 hours, the case samples were tested and confirmed to be the H5N1 variant, and the Civil Emergency Secretariat then reported it to the Prime Minister.

Prime Minister Ka Melen sat in his office, although the room had a warm air conditioner, but he looked at the report in his hand, but unconsciously a trace of cold sweat oozed from his back.

After a long time, he put down the report in his hand and asked with difficulty: "You mean that not only these more than 300 infected people, but also more hidden infected people in London?" ”

Health Minister Hunt touched the cold sweat on his head, with an ugly expression, like a patient who has been constipated for a long time, compared to the Prime Minister, as the Minister of Health, he knows more about the facts of this epidemic, and it is because of this that he feels terrified.

"Yes, Your Excellency, this flu outbreak has been so fast, from yesterday to now, hundreds of people can be infected in dozens of hours, which is absolutely unusual."

"You're saying it's a bioterrorist attack?" Ka Mellen was shocked.

"I have reason to doubt, Your Excellency, that it is simply strange that no outbreak of influenza has infected hundreds of people at once since records began in the twentieth century, and that these hundreds of people live and work in different places and come into contact with different things."

"Then the danger you spoke of before is ......"

"Your Excellency, it is its pathogenicity and transmissibility ......"

"Its pathogenicity and transmissibility are terrifying!"

Thousands of miles away, in a political axe conference room in Yanjing, an expert from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention pointed at the screen with a laser pointer and said.

Below him, a row of people sat the most familiar faces of the people of the country, the chairman, the prime minister and a member of the Standing Committee, and those sitting in the back were naturally the director of the CDC, as well as the secretary of the party committee and deputy director.

In a conference room, more than a dozen people all looked at the screen solemnly.

"Judging from the current statistics of Yanjing, from the first patient admitted at 14:45 on the 13th, to 20 o'clock on the 15th today, a total of 789 suspected patients were admitted to the hospital. By the previous hour, data showed that 15 people had died due to organ and tissue failure......"

Three days, from onset to death, it only takes three days! This flu is even worse than Ebola.

"Isn't the treatment working?" The chairman frowned.

"Chairman, after the initial detection of the H5N1 variant, the oral capsule Tamiflu produced by Roche Company, as well as the hypericin developed by the research team led by Dr. Liang Jianping, director of the Key Laboratory of the New Veterinary Drug Project of the Ministry of Agriculture, and Nashi No. 1 developed by the Yunnan Institute of Agricultural Ecology, but the effect is not obvious, and the patient's condition is still further deteriorating."

"What about vaccines? Since the flu is so difficult to treat, its spread must be stopped. The Prime Minister immediately thought of this crucial point.

"Prime Minister, I'm sorry, the vaccine developed for H5N1 before is ineffective against it, and we have organized relevant personnel to carry out vaccine development work." The expert said bitterly.

"How long will it take?" The Prime Minister said solemnly.

"The shortest is three months, and the longest is about five months."

"That is, there is no way to stop the spread with a vaccine in as little as three months?"

"Yes, Chairman."

Hearing this, all the people were silent, and experts had also analyzed it before, and it was very likely that this incident was a biochemical terrorist attack, otherwise there would be no precursor to infecting hundreds of people at one time. What's more, after the influenza virus infects people, it is manifested as the appearance of a cold within a day or two, and it cannot be well distinguished, so experts analyze that there are more people in Yanjing who are infected with the virus and have not been discovered.

"This variant H5N1, after further animal experiments (usually carried out on mice and ferrets) to test the transmissibility and pathogenicity of the virus, found that it can be transmitted through airborne dust, and after an hour of intense ultraviolet irradiation, there are still 20% of the virus, and its lethality rate is ......"

The expert paused, "above 87%." ”

“87%？”

The Prime Minister almost couldn't help but stand up, "It's also 87% for people?" Didn't only 15 people die out of a few hundred? ”

"Prime Minister, half of those 15 people are children with weak constitutions, and half are elderly people with diseases, plus they are the first group of people to be infected...... Now in the PLA General Hospital, 127 people are in a state of dying life. ”

All the Standing Committee members gasped, if it was said that it was a disease that existed in nature, who would believe it? The lethality rate is amazing, and the transmissibility is still so strong, if it is not for the deliberate genetic recombination of H5N1, it is difficult for such a virus to target humans in nature to suddenly appear.

Next is the director of the Centers for Disease Control who took over the topic, "President, Prime Minister, from last night and the information just received from the United Nations Health Organization, the Global Influenza Surveillance Network (GINS) has received new influenza notifications from London, New York, Washington, Tokyo, Singapore and other places since the 13th, as of the current hour ago, China has confirmed 1,736 people and 43 deaths, the United States has confirmed 1,247 people and 21 deaths, and Russia has confirmed 824 people and 17 deaths. It is said that 2,438 people were confirmed and 41 people died......"

Everyone was chilled to hear it, in just a few days, so many people had died from this flu, compared to the power of the previous flu.

"The WHOCC, after a comprehensive analysis of influenza surveillance information from various countries, has decided to issue the global influenza epidemic warning level 6 starting tomorrow, and hopes that we will be prepared for emergencies."

Level 6, the highest warning level that can be issued by the World Health Organization, means that a flu has begun to spread around the world and requires the highest level of preparedness from all countries.

"How bad is the situation now?" The Prime Minister asked.

"Prime Minister, statistics from the WHO show that the number of infected people worldwide has exceeded 10,000 and is still expanding, and if the governments of various countries do not take timely measures, then the final infected population is likely to increase geometrically in the next month, and finally exceed the billion mark......

Billion?

The Standing Committee members have gone through decades of political tempering, and it stands to reason that they have not changed their color, but when they heard this number, everyone's hands shook, their mouths opened, and they were speechless, obviously shocked to the extreme.

More than a billion people have been infected in a month, what is this concept? That's a huge sum of one-seventh of the world's population! If we calculate the mortality rate of 87%, it is possible that close to 900 million people will die!

You must know that even in the Second World War of the meat grinder, the total number of deaths is only 55 million, and the casualties are only 190 million, compared with the 900 million population, the gap is too big. The combined death toll of the two world wars is not even this horrific figure.

"Is this number accurate?" The prime minister forced himself to calm down.

"In fact, this is already a very optimistic statistic."

The director said with a wry smile: "The transmissibility of this virus is very amazing, not only through body fluids and blood, but also through air, water, feces, and it also has a certain ability to infect birds and animals, and at present, we have neither a cure for it, nor a vaccine to prevent its spread, even if we take good emergency measures, it is only to drag the number of infections of one billion people a month to two months, and the most important thing is that our vaccine research and development is really not fast, we know almost nothing about this variant of the virus." ”

The Standing Committee members were silent for a while, and finally, Chairman Tie Qing made a face and asked him to record in front of the secretary next to him: "First, immediately activate the crisis management committee and implement the national emergency operation command mechanism. Second, the implementation of all elements of the National Pandemic Preparedness Plan, including response coordination and the implementation of special interventions. Third, we need to monitor the global situation, immediately launch vaccine development projects, carry out medical experiments on the virus, and urgently engage in phone calls and cooperation with the United States, Russia, and Japan. Fourth, monitor the spread of the disease across the country, identify and implement emergency isolation measures, and trace the initial route of disease transmission. Fifth, relevant departments should do a good job of monitoring and assessing the impact on the country. Sixth, the emergency force is ready to be dispatched and ready to listen to orders! ”

Just as the chairman was making a series of instructions, there was already a lot of noise on the Internet outside. (To be continued.) )