Republic of China: Guandong Ginseng King

Chapter 429 Cholera
After Qu Shaoyang and his team entered Kuandian, they gradually discovered that something was not right. There were deaths in many villages.

Under such circumstances, people did not dare to stay overnight in the village and could only camp in the wilderness to rest.

Qu Shaoyang strictly ordered everyone that no one was allowed to drink raw water, and water had to be boiled before drinking. Eating raw food was also not allowed, and everything that went into the mouth had to be cooked or fried.

Don't even touch fruits or other things to minimize the chance of contact with sources of infection.

Afterwards, Qu Shaoyang and Chen Xiuyun stayed in a village where the illness was more serious for a few days.

Chen Xiuyun treated the patients and also advised the villagers on how to prevent infection.

After a few days, most of the patients who had received treatment showed improvement.

Chen Xiuyun also had a clue in her mind, so she followed Qu Shaoyang and continued walking towards Kuandian City.

The situation in Kuandian City was not very good either. Qu Shaoyang did not dare to let the two thousand Dingbian troops enter the city, so he asked them to set up camp outside the city.

Fortunately, the weather is hot now, so it’s okay to live outside.

Qu Shaoyang repeatedly reminded his men to be careful and take precautions, then he and Chen Xiuyun led some followers into Kuandian City and headed straight for the Chen family.

"Second sister-in-law, where are our father, mother, and my second brother?"

At the Chen family's side, Doctor Chen and his wife and Chen Yunhan were not at home, only He Qingzhu was staying at home.

Upon learning that Qu Shaoyang and Chen Xiuyun had returned, He Qingzhu hurried out to greet them.

"Hey, why are you back?
The city is in such a mess right now, with the disease rampant, why did you come back when you said you wanted to stay away from it?"

When He Qingzhu saw his sister and brother-in-law, he couldn't help but frown and said.

"Second sister-in-law, I came here on the orders of Lord Zhang. Xiuyun is worried about her parents and wants to come back to see them. I will try my best to help if I can." Qu Shaoyang hurriedly explained.

"Alas, this epidemic came too quickly, inexplicably, many people suddenly started vomiting and having diarrhea, and then some died.

Our parents took a lot of medicinal herbs and went to Yongdian and Changdian. The disease is most serious in the villages along the river."

He Qingzhu sighed when he heard this. Having escaped the war, they unexpectedly encountered an epidemic. Life was really impossible for the common people now.

After Doctor Chen and his companions returned to Kuandian, they first went to Daqinggou to pay homage to their ancestors. Just a few days after they returned from Daqinggou, the epidemic broke out.

The epidemic started in Andong City and Dadonggou, and gradually spread to other places.

Up to now, a large number of people have been infected in Andong, Kuandian, Fenghuangcheng, Xiuyan and other places.

On the Kuandian side, the situation in Changdian and Yongdian is particularly serious.

County magistrate Rong Xi called on doctors in the city to go to Yongdian and other places to provide treatment and find a cure.

Although Doctor Chen no longer runs a clinic, his medical skills are still there and everyone knows about it.

Rong Xi came in person to ask for help, so Doctor Chen naturally couldn't refuse, so he and Li went to Yongdian with a lot of medicinal materials.

As for Chen Yunhan, he followed Doctor Chen's advice and took the Dingbian Army and the militia to maintain public order and isolate villages with high incidence of the epidemic.

Whenever there is an epidemic, the first thing to do is to isolate and block the transmission path.

Doctor Chen had been in charge of the treatment of plague before, so he brought it up when Rong Xi visited him.

Rong Xi is a pretty good person and is quite cooperative, but there are not that many guards in the county town. Chen Yunhan is in charge of militia training and guarding, so this matter will definitely fall on him.

“Second sister-in-law, since my parents are not in the city, let’s go to Yongdian to find them.

On the way here, Xiuyun also saw a lot of sick people and researched some treatment methods. She wants to discuss it with our father. "

Qu Shaoyang came here on orders to assist in preventing and controlling the epidemic. It would be great if a solution could be found as soon as possible.

The couple came and went in a hurry, and left after chatting with He Qingzhu for a few words.

After leaving the city, he led his men straight to Yongdian. In Yongdian, the militia had blocked all the roads and prohibited anyone from entering or leaving.

Of course, Qu Shaoyang could not be stopped from coming, so Qu Shaoyang and Chen Xiuyun met Doctor Chen and his wife smoothly.

"It's so dangerous here, what are you doing here?" Doctor Chen and Mrs. Li were both wearing masks and were busy treating patients.

Upon learning that his daughter and son-in-law had arrived, he hurried out to meet them and gave them a few words of admonition.

Qu Shaoyang and Chen Xiuyun hurriedly explained, and Chen Xiuyun added that they might have found some ways to solve the epidemic.

After hearing this, Doctor Chen agreed to let his daughter and son-in-law enter Yongdian. Of course, he did not forget to ask them to wear masks.

The situation here is indeed quite serious, with almost half of the households having patients.

Although many doctors came, they were still unable to treat all the patients, and seriously ill patients could die at any time.

Everyone is busy and overwhelmed, and no one has found the most effective solution yet.

Chen Xiuyun went to see those patients and their symptoms were similar to those she had seen before.

They then took samples of the patients' stool and looked at them under a microscope.

Just like in the previous village, a small creature with a strange shape and very fast movement was discovered.

Those little things are Vibrio cholerae, and the disease they cause is cholera, a highly contagious disease.

In fact, the word cholera has been recorded in medical records very early on.

For example, in the Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine, it is written that "wherever Taiyin reaches, there will be fullness in the middle, cholera, vomiting and diarrhea." "wherever the earth is depressed, there will be vomiting and cholera."

Zhang Zhongjing of the Eastern Han Dynasty also discussed cholera in his "Treatise on Febrile Diseases".

However, the cholera mentioned in traditional Chinese medicine refers to symptoms such as vomiting and diarrhea, similar to acute gastroenteritis or bacterial food poisoning, and is not a highly contagious disease caused by Vibrio cholerae.

By the end of the Qing Dynasty, the highly contagious disease cholera was introduced into the country from abroad.

Because its symptoms are similar to those of cholera described in ancient Chinese medicine, and its pronunciation abroad is also similar to that of cholera, it was directly named cholera.

This disease generally occurs in coastal areas, especially in places with relatively backward economy and poor living conditions.

The water quality in Kuandian, Andong and other places is good, so most of the lower-class people don’t drink tea, and they don’t even boil water to drink, they just drink cold water directly.

In summer and autumn, when it is hot, most people like to eat sorghum rice and corn sorghum rice. After the rice is cooked, it is rinsed with cold water and then scooped out with a strainer to eat.

In the past, there was nothing wrong with eating like this.

However, places like Andong, Kuandian, and Phoenix City had just experienced a war followed by a drought, which made it easy for an epidemic to break out.

"Dad, I heard from Shao Yang that there was a cholera epidemic in Japan before, and nearly 100,000 people died. It seems that it has not been completely eradicated until now.

This disease is very serious. If it is not controlled well, many people will die." Chen Xiuyun explained to Doctor Chen and others.

Of course, most of what she said was heard from Qu Shaoyang.

Along the way, the couple discussed the epidemic a lot.

After seeing those patients and observing Vibrio cholerae under a microscope, Qu Shaoyang concluded that the epidemic was cholera. He then made up an excuse that he had seen foreign doctors in Fengtian before, and that he had captured Japanese military doctors during the war a while ago, and that he knew a lot of bits and pieces.

Although Qu Shaoyang's statement was a bit confusing and illogical, Chen Xiuyun did not doubt it.

After all, Qu Shaoyang had traveled all over the world over the years, met many foreigners, and learned a lot about things abroad, so it was not surprising that he knew about cholera.

"Madam, just tell me if there is any way to cure this disease. It's useless to say anything else now.

The most important thing is to quickly control the disease and prevent large numbers of deaths."

The doctors were confused by what they heard and didn't understand what bacteria were and they just wanted to know how to cure the disease.

“I have prepared several medicines that you can try.

But the most important thing is isolation, keeping healthy people and patients apart and away from each other.

Next, pay attention to food hygiene. Drink boiled water and eat cooked rice. Do not eat raw fruits and vegetables, and do not eat sorghum rice water, corn grits rice, etc.

This is what we have been doing all along, and it seems to be working.”

When Chen Xiuyun came, she brought a lot of medicine. She also did a lot of research along the way and came up with several treatment methods.

But the most important thing is prevention.

If we fail to take timely precautions and stop the spread of the disease, more and more people will fall ill. With only a few doctors and apprentices in front of us, they will be exhausted and still not be able to cure all the cases.

After discussion, everyone decided to implement the method proposed by Chen Xiuyun.

So Qu Shaoyang took people to promote the disease door to door, and these doctors cooperated with Doctor Chen and Chen Xiuyun, father and daughter, to treat the patients.

After Chen Xiuyun successfully prepared penicillin, Qu Shaoyang also tried to guide Chen Xiuyun to use a simple method to prepare and extract berberine and allicin.

The extraction of allicin is very laborious and the success rate is not very high.

However, berberine can be extracted by crushing plants such as Phellodendron chinense, Coptis chinensis, and Tripterygium wilfordii and soaking them in alcohol.

After testing, it was found that berberine is very effective in treating intestinal diseases.

Before going out this time, Chen Xiuyun didn't know which medicine was suitable, so she brought with her the penicillin, berberine and other medicines she had prepared.

When passing by that village on the way, Chen Xiuyun used berberine on those patients, and the effect was indeed better than decoction.

In fact, over the past few days, Doctor Chen and his colleagues have also figured out several treatment prescriptions.

Combined with berberine and measures such as giving patients oral saline rehydration, the symptoms of many people gradually improved, except for some particularly severe cases.

Chen Xiuyun and her colleagues were responsible for treating the patients, while Qu Shaoyang and his team were responsible for prevention and control. With these two approaches, the situation in Yongdian area was brought under control.

Upon seeing this, Qu Shaoyang immediately went to Phoenix City and reported all the experience in Yongdian to Zhang Xiulan.

When Zhang Xiulan heard that a solution to the epidemic had been found, he was very happy, so he immediately promoted it to other places where the epidemic was rampant, as Qu Shaoyang said.

All local garrisons, militias, patrol battalions, etc. were mobilized to cooperate with prevention and control and publicize prevention and control methods as much as possible.

At the same time, doctors were recruited from Tonghua, Huairen, Fengtian and other places, and large quantities of medicines, liquor, etc. were purchased.

Chen Xiuyun was also invited to Phoenix, where she led a group of people to prepare berberine in a hurry, and then distributed it to various places to treat patients.

The people in the Eastern Province, who had just experienced war, were once again mobilized to deal with the epidemic.

Finally, everyone's efforts paid off. After more than a month, the epidemic was clearly under control in various places and the death toll gradually decreased.

"Shaoyang, you are so lucky to have married a wife with excellent medical skills.

This time, your wife has made a great contribution." Zhang Xiluan called Qu Shaoyang and Chen Xiuyun over and praised them.

"Sir, I don't deserve any credit for my achievements. Xiuyun is a medical student, and saving lives is her duty.

Besides, my husband is the inspector of the East Road, and my brother is the deputy governor of Fenghuang City. They are both officials of the East Road, and we have no choice but to help the people when they need help."

Chen Xiuyun stood beside Qu Shaoyang, glanced at her husband and brother, and said with a smile.

"Okay, that's a good obligation.

Mr. Chen, your father and mother are very capable. They have raised their three children so well.

The son is outstanding in both literature and martial arts, and the daughter is proficient in medicine and has a deep understanding of justice. This is really rare."

Zhang Xiulan was very happy after hearing what Chen Xiuyun said, and he even praised the Chen family.

“I have already reported the whole story of this epidemic to the court, and I believe that the court will reward me in the near future.

You have been very tired these days, go back and have a good rest first.

Shaoyang, when you have time, go and bring your father-in-law over. We are in-laws now, but we haven’t met each other yet.”

Before this, Zhang Xiulan's adoption of Qu Shaoyang as his adopted son was somewhat of a matter of going with the flow.

Now, he simply treats Qu Shaoyang and his wife as his lucky stars.

What Zhang Xiulan said was simply to express his appreciation for Qu Shaoyang and his wife.

Qu Shaoyang is the godson, Chen Xiuyun is the daughter-in-law, so Doctor Chen is a relative, right?

We are relatives now, so we have to meet each other, get to know each other, and have interactions and get along well with each other in the future.

"Yes, I will follow my foster father's instructions. I will go and pick up my father-in-law and his family to reunite in two days."

Qu Shaoyang couldn't understand what Zhang Xiluan meant. He was also very happy at the moment.

So the three of them chatted with Zhang Xiulan for a while before returning to Chen Yunzhe.

After some time, the epidemic was completely under control, and even in Dadonggou and Shahezi, where the disease was most severe, no one died from the disease anymore.

Coupled with several consecutive rains, the drought was alleviated and the water source was cleaned. The dark clouds that had shrouded the hearts of the people in the eastern road finally dissipated.

Qu Shaoyang went to Kuandian and brought the Chen family to Fenghuang City. Zhang Xiluan kept his promise and hosted a banquet in his mansion.

During the dinner, Zhang Xiulan had a very pleasant conversation with Doctor Chen, and he kept praising Doctor Chen and his wife for their good parenting skills.

After learning that Doctor Chen had previously opened a clinic but was forced to close it, Zhang Xiulan repeatedly stated that with Doctor Chen's medical skills, he should open another clinic to save lives and benefit the people.

Zhang Xiulan also said that if Doctor Chen was willing, he could open a clinic in Phoenix City, recruit apprentices, carry forward the medical skills, and benefit the people.

Doctor Chen did have this intention, but he did not express it rashly. He just said that he would consider it.

The epidemic has been brought under control and there is nothing to worry about here. After staying in Phoenix City for a few more days, Qu Shaoyang and his wife set off to return to Maoer Mountain.

However, Doctor Chen and his wife, who had finally gotten to see their eldest grandson, were so happy that they decided to stay for a while and think about the affairs of the clinic.

(End of this chapter)