The epidemic in the United States broke out so quickly, in just over a day, more than 1,000 people have been infected, including 200 severe cases and 400 deaths!

This news was like a whirlwind, occupying the front pages of major media in the United States and internationally, and people all over the world were paying attention to the sudden outbreak of the epidemic in the United States. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

That evening, President Stanley gave a pacifying speech about the epidemic and declared a state of emergency. The entire state of Pennsylvania has been completely cut off from transportation, all kinds of supplies are delivered by air, US chemical defense forces have been stationed, and curfews have been imposed in important settlements, and many residents far from the epicenter of the epidemic have fled the outbreak area with their families.

And the governments of Pennsylvania were quickly paralyzed.

The epidemic is raging, and the Western society, which has been plagued by epidemics throughout history, cannot help but remind the bubonic plague (Black Death) that almost destroyed the whole of Europe more than 600 years ago. The epidemic killed 75 million people around the world, including 40 million in Europe, accounting for about half of the total population of European society at that time.

Will this outbreak also become so destructive? Now no one can say for sure, after all, the great discovery of mankind "antibiotics" has been ineffective against them! In the face of germs, people returned to the Middle Ages, and a sense of pathos could not help but spread.

In the next few days, the epidemic was still spreading, and there were several hard-hit areas throughout Pennsylvania, and the number of infected people reached a staggering 63,000, including 11,000 severe cases and 26,000 deaths!

This sudden epidemic has seriously destroyed the cornerstone of social stability, and various violent incidents have broken out in various places.

Stanley was already so busy that his planned visit to China was put on hold.

"Haven't we found a drug to counter this superbug?" At a joint meeting, Stanley put aside his gentlemanly demeanor and ranted at the officials of the Ministry of Health.

The roaring official tried to restrain himself, and said with a bitter face: "Your Excellency, the antibiotic drug is still being tested, and we still need time!" ”

"Time, we don't have time!" Stanley sat down and rubbed his head with some chagrin, thinking that tens of thousands of people could die a day, and that he, the new president, was under great pressure.

But he also understood that the production of a new type of drug and antibiotic must go through trial and error, and he was in a hurry, so he raised his head and asked, "How long will it take?" ”

"More than 1,000 drugs with different molecular structures are currently being tried, all of which are derived from conventional antibiotics, and if you are fast, you can get results in two days!"

"Then hurry up and experiment!" Stanley knew this, and waved his hand a little helplessly.

"Has the source of the bacterial variant been found?" He also set his sights on the head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The person in charge nodded: "The preliminary source has been determined, this mutant bacterium has a tagged gene that we know, and the only biological laboratory that uses this tagged gene is a military biological laboratory on the outskirts of Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania, who is trying to develop a super antibiotic to treat the growing superbug." ”

"You mean that their purpose was to create a superbiotic, but they ended up creating a much more powerful superbug?" Stanley asked, frowning.

"Yes, this kind of accident is within the scope of science can explain! Ninety-eight of the 124 members of the laboratory have been infected with the bacterium, including two soldiers in charge of guarding. According to laboratory staff, the Escherichia coli variant is not heat-tolerant, but it is resistant to general antibiotics, not only resistant, but even ordinary antibiotics are their good food and stimulants, which can stimulate their rapid division and produce toxic by-substances. ”

"Ordinary antibiotics don't work, and they stimulate it to multiply! Did the news go on? Stanley was startled and immediately asked.

"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has sent the information on this mutant Escherichia coli to the table, and if it is handled properly and without conventional antibiotics, the fatality rate can probably be controlled below 15%."

Generally speaking, after a severe bacterial infection is found, doctors usually inject antibiotics, which is the culprit of the 100% mortality rate in the early stage. Antibiotics should never be used for this mutated superbug.

Stanley's heart was at ease, and his face finally returned to normal.

"However, although the high lethality rate of bacteria has been explained, there is still no way to explain its high infectivity! Because Escherichia coli is theoretically not very contagious, as long as the precautions are taken properly, the current large-scale transmission will not occur. ”

"What caused that?" Stanley asked, confused.

"There's no explanation for this phenomenon yet."

"There's another thing that puzzles the experts."

"What?"

"We performed autopsies on the deceased patients and found that the gray matter part of their central nervous system had spongy vacuoles, the gray matter in the brainstem was symmetrically lesioned on both sides, the nerve fiber network had a moderate number of discontinuous ovoid and spherical cavities, nerve cells were swollen into balloons, and the cytoplasm was narrowed," the official said. In addition, there is significant degeneration and necrosis of nerve cells. ”

"What do you mean?" Stanley was stunned, he didn't understand the terms.

"To put it simply, the brains of these patients are empty, they are like swollen sponge foam, which can no longer be called brain tissue."

Stanley's face was cold, and he couldn't help but stiffen.

"Well, you must be serious when you go back, this epidemic has caused too much damage to our United States, and we must not allow this situation to continue." Stanley clapped his hands and cheered everyone on.

As everyone walked out of the White House office one by one, Stanley was silent for a while, turned his head to look at the large map of the United States hanging behind him, sighed heavily, and couldn't help but become irritable.

……

Because of the sudden outbreak of the epidemic in the United States, the world's trade and population flows with the United States have also come to a standstill.

This is not only a great shock to the economy, but also to people's hearts.

Even China, thousands of miles away, has also strengthened its vigilance at this time, and all entry and exit are on standby, and the health bureaus, disease control centers, and inspection and quarantine bureaus in various places are jointly guarded to carry out strict inspections on the people who come and go, and the various sets of plans tempered because of the SARS incident more than ten years ago have been put out again.

Although no cases have been detected in the country, the hearts of the people are already panicking, as if they are facing a great enemy.

Some things that are about to come cannot be avoided, even if there is a strict guard, the virus that cannot be seen by the naked eye will find a place to exploit loopholes and enter in a grand manner.

On January 25, 2017, two days before Chinese New Year's Eve, it should have been the day for countless people to return home, but because of the outbreak of the epidemic in the United States, strict crowd movement management was implemented in China, and a large number of migrant workers also dismissed the idea of returning home for the New Year.

And it was also on this day that Guangzhou People's Hospital found the first special patient, this patient had just returned from a trip to the United States, and unfortunately encountered an outbreak of the epidemic during the trip, and all his signs were normal when he entered the country, and he did not appear until four days later, and he was declared dead one day after being admitted to the hospital. Before death, the patient had convulsions and manic reactions, and at the same time scratched a medical staff, who had the same reaction the next day and died.

However, the Escherichia coli variant was not detected in either case.

The news was quickly uploaded to the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention, which attracted great attention from the country's high-level officials, and at the same time, as the first unknown case detected in Asia, the data was also uploaded to the World Health Organization's case database.

"No Escherichia coli variants have been found, but the symptoms are the same as those of many patients in the United States?"

At the World Health Organization's global teleconference of infectious disease experts, the experts at the conference were surprised.

There have been a large number of deaths in the United States, and there is a relatively clear understanding of the patient's response to death, and although no variant bacteria were found in this case in China, all the symptoms are consistent.

"Could it be that we were going in the wrong direction from the beginning, that the Escherichia coli variant is not to blame, it is just a coincidence that misled us?" An expert from the U.S. Department of Health asked.

Because I thought it was a superbug infection at first, antibiotics were routinely used, but the antibiotics failed to restrain the bacteria and instead provoked a strong reaction from the bacteria, which was the cause of the patient's early death, and those cases of death accompanied by convulsions and anxiety were actually caused by another unknown virus?

"It's hard to say what the situation is, but it can't be ruled out." This speculation was recorded.

"How's the development of new antibiotics going in the U.S.?" A WHO coordinator asked.

"It is progressing very smoothly, it has entered the clinical stage, and the number of microbiota in the body of the patients participating in the trial has been reduced by 80%, and I believe that it will be completely killed in two days!"

"Please wait a minute, there is an emergency on my side."

After about five minutes, the American expert appeared on the screen again, but his face became very ugly: "Ladies and gentlemen, the bad news is that the number of microbiota in the patients participating in the clinical trial of the new antibiotic has dropped to zero, and the new antibiotic has been shown to be effective against the Escherichia coli variant, but ten minutes ago, this patient passed away from the same cause of death as the other patients. ”

Wow! The experts at the meeting discussed that this result undoubtedly declared that their previous direction was wrong.

"Is there really another culprit?"

……

……

Earth Fleet, Academy of Sciences.

A special laboratory of the Life Science Research Group, this special laboratory is spherical in shape, with an internal diameter of 300 meters, and is fixed in the void more than 600 meters away from the main building by three long brackets.

The periphery of the laboratory is also covered with a glass cover, and the inside is filled with various disinfection equipment such as ozone, ultraviolet, and high temperature, which shows the strict protective measures. Moreover, all pathological studies are completed by remotely controlled machinery, thus ensuring the absolute safety of the experimenter.

Seeing that the virus is spreading more and more on the earth, Zhou Chen can't sit still, although this is a good opportunity to reduce the population through the virus, but there are some things that can't be done, Zhou Chen still knows it in his heart, who doesn't have a brother or sister or something, pinning "population reduction" on the virus that attacks indiscriminately, is tantamount to asking for his own death.

So he obtained a sample of the virus through special means and handed it over to a biologist led by Cai Xiaoxi for research.

"How's it going?" Zhou Chen was waiting for the result, and when he saw Cai Xiaoxi and the others finishing the operation, he hurriedly asked.