A Hospital in Another World? C.316: One Pathogen, Three Forms

Hearing the apprentices in the laboratory arguing, Garrett first... breathed a sigh of relief.

Thank God, the pathogen was bacteria—not a virus. If it had been a virus, that would have been the end of it. Viruses are smaller than the wavelength of visible light, so visible light waves would "bypass" them, making them invisible under an optical microscope. To identify a virus, one would need an electron microscope...

And to construct an electron microscope, a whole array of prerequisite technologies such as atoms, electrons, wave-particle duality, etc., would need to be developed, which was currently impossible!

Thankfully it was bacteria. Relieved, Garrett then closed the gate behind him and glanced around the lab:

"What are you arguing about?"

Wrapped in protective gear, his face was not visible, but just this question silenced the four people in the lab at once. Garrett even saw two people shrink their necks, as if silenced by fear—Am I that frightening?

If time hadn’t been of the essence, he really would have liked to make a joke about that. However, with hundreds of patients waiting outside, Garrett had no choice but to move forward and examine each person’s petri dish:

"What have you managed to create?"

Ah, this protective gear, pitch black, completely concealing everyone’s identity. Next time, he thought, they should write names on the protective suits or attach name tags—Garrett approached the microscope closest to him, and the apprentice beside it immediately stepped aside, complaining:

"Look, sir, what I made is individual ones, but he used what I extracted to make something, and his turned out to be long chains! I told him he did it wrong, and he wouldn’t believe me!"

What individual ones, long chains? Garrett’s brain raced, searching through various possibilities. "What did you make?"

"Smears!" The apprentice answered confidently. Garrett realized then that the apprentice responsible for the smears was a necromancer apprentice, meticulous and steady-handed. He was one of the first eight to pass the bacterial culture exam and had been assigned to work in the lab:

"I made smears of patient feces and environmental samples! Both showed this kind of bacteria, in large amounts! I told him to culture it, and what he produced was different from mine, definitely a contamination!"

"Let me see." Garrett, noncommittal, leaned into the microscope. Slowly turning the knob, the image under the lens gradually enlarged. The image of the bacteria appeared under the lens, and Garrett, with just one glance, felt his heart race, bending closer to the lens:

The bacteria under the lens were much larger than he had anticipated!

Garrett slightly closed his eyes, flipping through "Medical Microbiology" in his mind, ceaselessly searching:

Escherichia coli, size (0.4~0.7) * (1～3) micrometers;

Shigella, (0.5~0.7) * (2~3) micrometers;

Salmonella, causing typhoid and paratyphoid, (0.6~1.0) * (2~4) micrometers;

Vibrio cholerae, (0.5~0.8) * (1.5~3) micrometers;

Anthrax bacillus, (1~3) * (5~10) micrometers!!!

Whether in length or width, it was significantly larger than other pathogens! It was the first pathogen discovered in human history and the largest Gram-positive bacillus among pathogens, a fact his teacher had emphasized in class!

Garrett’s breath tightened. Looking again, the smear under the microscope showed short rods and some oval presences. Garrett reviewed several smears, all revealing these particularly large bacteria, identical to the anthrax bacilli he had previously extracted.

Because the product was too dangerous, Garrett hadn’t allowed the apprentices to culture this bacterium, merely discussing its characteristics and showing them pictures—after all, when he studied "Medical Microbiology," he hadn’t seen every type of bacteria either, much of it was memorized by rote.

Perhaps because of this, the two apprentices hadn’t yet realized and were still arguing with each other?

Garrett forcefully calmed his pounding heart. He nodded to the necromancer apprentice and then turned to another:

"Let me see what you’ve produced."

"Right here, sir." Another apprentice made way as well. A clear female voice, tall among women, she was the girl who had brought several wild boars—thanks to recent intensive training, and perhaps the development of biogas, she had advanced to a formal priest. Because she mastered microbial cultivation magic, Garrett had assigned her to the lab specifically for bacterial culture.

Garrett observed carefully through her microscope. The knob hadn’t even been fully turned when his fingers stopped:

Under the microscope,

a long string of bacteria, head to tail, formed into long chains, their shape resembling bamboo segments.

Fresh samples directly smeared often appeared singly or in short chains; after cultivation, they formed into long chains arranged like bamboo segments... "Medical Microbiology" text lines sprang to mind like thunder and lightning.

【Bamboo segment-like】These three characters were even bolded in the textbook, accompanied by illustrations!

Garrett felt as if his breath was being choked off. The microscopic examination of bacteria, combined with the symptoms of the patients outside, led to one conclusion...

Intestinal anthrax.

Extremely rare, with an incidence rate constituting only 5% of all cases of this Class B epidemic, yet extremely dangerous. Complications include sepsis, with death occurring within 2~3 days without treatment, and a mortality rate between 25% to 70%...

Is it really this disease?

—Wait, further verification is needed!

Garrett turned to the apprentices in the lab:

"Do another culture experiment, this time, add penicillin to the agar—penicillin concentration of 0.05~0.5 units per milliliter of culture medium, now, immediately, do it again!"

A necromancer, a transmutation school magician, and two priests of the God of Nature, responded in unison, skillfully beginning to prepare.

The calculation method for penicillin concentration had been taught by Garrett before: in every 50 milliliters of broth, the amount of penicillin that could precisely inhibit the reproduction of Staphylococcus aureus was one unit. Agar with an appropriate amount of penicillin was made into a flat culture medium, then bacterial samples were added, and the cultivation spell was cast—

"It’s different again! Sir, what was produced this time is different again!"

"Show me!" Garrett stepped up to the microscope. Beneath the lens, no longer were there long bamboo segment-like chains, but instead, large, uniform spheres, arranged into a long string of pearls!

Penicillin bead test, positive!

Direct smears often appear singly or in short chains, but after cultivation, they form long chains arranged like bamboo segments, and in culture medium containing minute amounts of penicillin, they appear as pearl chains—among the pathogens he learned in "Medical Microbiology," only this one showed the above characteristics!

No more wishful thinking.

Or rather, they had already received their only stroke of luck from heaven, and could not expect any more.

Garrett fiercely closed his eyes. He looked towards the two apprentices conducting the smear experiments:

"Where did the test materials, the environmental samples, come from?"

Both apprentices leaned over to look at the record book. The necromancer, articulate, quickly read it out:

"39 Gladstone Street, Rooms 101, 115, 213, tap water culture!"

"25 Cameron Street, Rooms 218, 305, 312, tap water culture!"

"37 Alamo Street, Basement Room 11, Room 105, tap water..."

Indeed, it was the water source. Three different buildings, eight different households, tap water supplied for drinking, all tested positive for the pathogen—there was only one possibility, the water source was contaminated!

Garrett became more and more certain. He pointed to the two apprentices in the lab, one from the transmutation school and the tall girl from the God of Nature’s congregation:

"Neither of you did anything wrong, this bacterium indeed presents different forms under different conditions, go back and review my lecture notes again. —You two, put down what you’re working on immediately, come with me! There are more important tasks for you!

The other two, take your time, save today’s spell uses, there will be a batch of important samples coming later, prioritize according to my note!"

"Yes!"

"Yes!"

Garrett hurriedly led them away. However, no matter how urgent he was, he had to follow lab rules: rinse with disinfectant, remove protective gear, shower a second time, put on the clothes he came in with, and wear a cap, mask, and gloves. After completing the procedure, returning to the outer room, the hospital was already in a frenzy:

"Patient number 57 on the first floor is in critical condition! Priest! Priest!"

"Patient number 113 on the first floor has fainted!"

"Two more people have escaped from the isolation area! Should we catch them?"

"Let me out! Let me out! —I’ll be fired if I don’t go to work!"

"Mom, mom—help—"

"The third floor is full too! Where do we send the patients?"

Garrett briskly walked through the hallway. Along the way, nearly every room had the white light of healing spells flickering. Reaching the lobby, Master Tolga sat amidst a group of low-ranking medical magicians, all exhausted and drenched in sweat. Master Tolga was handing out fruit from

a space bag, throwing them one by one.

Garrett hurried over:

"Don’t eat here! You must wash your hands before eating! Thoroughly wash your hands! Change clothes! All clothes must be soaked in disinfectant, and if possible, it’s best to burn them! If your clothes and hands are contaminated with pathogens, eating without cleaning can also lead to the plague!"

Damn it! The dissemination of knowledge on infectious diseases and aseptic techniques really needs to be accelerated. Otherwise, even if the patients aren’t cured, an outbreak of hospital-acquired infections would be a huge joke!

"Did you hear that!" Master Tolga quickly stopped his disciples. At the same time, several priests from upstairs also came down, equally exhausted and sweaty. Bishop Sullivan of the War God’s Temple even slipped on the stairs, barely grabbing the handrail, and hurried towards Garrett:

"We’re running out of healing power! We’ve called everyone we can, but it’s still not enough! —Garrett, do you have any solutions?"

"Give me some time." Garrett gasped tiredly: "Your Excellency, Your Grace, please take them and conserve spells as much as possible, just keep the patients alive. Give me time! Buy me time!"