Chapter 247 Ascites
Suzhou, a land of prosperity, a land of fish and rice.
In the past New Year, lanterns should be hung high in the city, firecrackers will never cease, the streets are full of pedestrians, cars and horses are like dragons, temple fairs come one after another, and the whole city is immersed in the joy of the New Year.
It is said that there are many rides under the moon, and you can watch people in front of the lamp. The joy is boundless, and the singing and dancing reach the morning.
However, at this moment, the city of Suzhou seemed extremely deserted.
On the walls of the pavilions on both sides of the street, half-hanging bunting lanterns remain.
Passers-by are in a hurry and dare not stay in one place for too long.
In the busiest canal in the past, ships from all over the world came and went. Few of them docked at the shore. Instead, they drove away at a faster speed—as if there was something dirty and filthy that could not be seen in the city.
Li Ang and Shen Tuyu landed outside the city, rode their horses, and drove into Suzhou City.
"I only came to Suzhou once a few years ago. At that time, I felt that Chang'an and Luoyang were no less prosperous and prosperous."
Shen Tuyu sighed and said: "I didn't expect that it would be so withered because of water poisoning."
"Infectious diseases are fiercer than tigers. Those who can leave Suzhou City and seek refuge with relatives all go, and those who stay are those whose family property is here and cannot leave."
Li Ang glanced at the street merchants with closed doors, and frowned deeply.
The profit-seeking merchants can give up their profits and stop their business. The situation in Suzhou City is worse than he imagined.
The two drove to the prefect's mansion,
The prefect of Suzhou passed the worms in advance, knew they were coming, and had already hosted a banquet to receive them, and even lowered his posture, personally greeted them outside the mansion.
It's a pity that Li Ang didn't have much leisure time to make friends with courtiers. After dealing with it, he immediately asked to go to the sickroom.
"You two, please follow me."
Suzhou Sima, whose official position is from the fifth rank, dared not put on the slightest official airs in front of Shen Tuyu, the imperial enshrinement, and Li Ang, who was a tour guide in the academy, and led the way honestly.
Due to Suzhou’s financial prosperity and large population, the Suzhou Infirmary was also built in style, covering a huge area.
It's just that there are too many patients influx, which exceeds the upper limit of the ward's capacity.
There are beds placed in the rooms and yards, and the surrounding houses are also contracted for requisition.
Patients were lying on the bed with swollen abdomen, yellow complexion, and thin limbs. Many of them were coughing violently, coughing up **** phlegm,
Staff wearing uniforms and masks, or boiling herbs, or running between beds, carrying basins of water—they are not infected, but their physical condition is not much better,
The overload of work made their eyes bloodshot.
"Leave a way! Make a way!"
A middle-aged nurse hurried across the courtyard with a spittoon, accidentally tripped over a stone, and leaned forward involuntarily.
Seeing that the spittoon was about to be spilled on the ground, a wave of thoughts was released from the air to stabilize the nurse and the spittoon in his hand.
Suzhou Sima and the person in charge of the ward on the side turned pale with fright. If the spittoon was spilled, the smell would reach the two noblemen from Chang'an
Suzhou Sima was about to step forward to scold him, but Li Ang raised his hand to stop him.
"The ward is understaffed, so it's normal to be overwhelmed."
Li Ang turned his head and asked the trembling nurse, "How do you deal with the excrement in the spittoon?"
"ah"
The nurse froze for a moment, "Just put it in the dung bucket."
"Is there no one to collect it?"
Li Ang asked again.
Due to the development of manure technology, some folks in Yu country specialize in collecting urban manure, composting it into manure and selling it to farmers, making a lot of profit. In some places, there are even so-called Yexiang guilds.
The nurse replied honestly: "The patients here have severe diarrhea, and there will be bloodshot mucus in the feces, and no one comes to collect them.
We don't have enough manpower, so we can only dump it in a big dung bucket. Send it out of the city every few days. "
"That's good, keep it up."
Li Ang nodded, no matter how inexplicable the words sounded to others, he strode across the ward, came to the file room, and checked the medical records.
Before, under his suggestion, wards all over the country had the habit of recording patient information. After checking, they could know the patient's time of illness, initial test status, disease progression, attending physician, medication, etc. information.
Li Ang quickly flipped through all the information, his brows became more and more wrinkled, and he suddenly raised his head and said to Suzhou Sima: "Please, Sima, find me some maps of Suzhou.
River map, water network map, farming map. The more and more detailed the better.
There is also a guide who is familiar with the surrounding villages in Suzhou. I'm going out of town later. "
Without rigorous investigation, there is no right to speak.
However, the results of the investigation were particularly terrifying.
Seven counties around Suzhou, among more than 100 townships, 70 towns are endemic for schistosomiasis,
The infection rate in the most serious villages and towns was over 80%, more than half of the people were parasitized by schistosomiasis, nearly a thousand people died one after another, and there were new tombs all over the mountains and plains.
Even more desperate are the villages.
The children in a whole village all suffer from ascites, their bellies are as big as wax gourds, their complexions are yellow and emaciated
Their parents are also infected with schistosomiasis. I don’t know if they can still farm this year.
For the villagers, the land is their only source of livelihood,
If people are unable to cultivate food because they are weak, it means that they have no money to buy medicines, cure diseases with myrrh, and cannot engage in production, falling into a vicious circle.
Being sick due to poverty, and returning to poverty due to illness.
The villages will literally become "villages of extinct households". In the next few years, it will be completely wiped off the map.
If the cruelty on the battlefield is blood-stained yellow sand, shrouded in horse leather, full of generosity and heroism,
Then the cruelty of the water-poison-infested area is silent misery and desolation.
The walls of the village are covered with vines and weeds. In the uninhabited thatched huts, the wind is shrill, like a ghost crying.
Even the skinny wild dogs on the side of the road dragged their heavy bellies—their bellies were so swollen that they dragged on the ground for a long time, and the hair on their abdomen was rubbed bald.
Shen Tuyu took Li Ang and the guide with a flying sword, and quickly surveyed the surrounding villages and towns.
The **** investigation results suffocated him who has always been lazy,
On the way back to Suzhou City, I couldn't help muttering: "Why is this happening?"
He is a swordsman in the Candle Sky Realm, even in the face of the most dangerous first-level alien beast, he is confident in beheading it with the three-foot green sword in his hand.
But facing an invisible enemy, where should he swing his sword? Where can it go?
"Water poisoning disease has existed since ancient times."
Li Ang said gloomily: "Based on the medical records of the ward and the information provided by the villagers, people in their village have always suffered from ascites before. But it has not been paid attention to in the past.
Until recently, it broke out suddenly. "
What causes the spread of schistosomiasis?
Temperature? rain? Species invasion? Or a mutation?
Li Ang couldn't figure it out. All he can do is race against time to suppress the schistosomiasis epidemic.
only
Is it really possible?
(end of this chapter)