Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 388

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 388
‘Ah… this is truly a doctor’s nightmare.’
Such diverse symptoms appearing in succession, with one common thread—they all used the same well.
There appeared to be no incubation period, yet early fever patterns were evident.
Then after about a week, abdominal pain and skin rashes would emerge.
Some patients experienced no stomach pain, but quite a significant number complained of abdominal discomfort.
After roughly a month, some patients mysteriously recovered on their own.
‘…I need to conduct a more detailed pulse diagnosis, but among all these overlapping symptoms, there is one disease I can suspect.’
Typhoid Fever.
If early treatment is missed, it carries a mortality rate of 10-20% even in modern times. (With early treatment, mortality drops below 1%.)
There’s even a hypothesis that many died from this disease in ancient Athens, making it one of the factors that ended Athens’ golden age.
Though it’s nearly disappeared in our country now, a typhoid outbreak occurred at a hotel in 2017, leading to its temporary closure.
One of the infected was a cafeteria chef who visited the hospital over ten times due to poor health, but management forced him to work anyway, resulting in further spread of the infection.
Beyond that, there are overseas infections.
Quite a few cases occur when people travel to India and Southeast Asian regions.
Particularly, there have been instances where entire tour groups from India contracted it at once.
‘For countries designated as endemic typhoid zones, always get vaccinated before traveling, and if you develop fever or feel unwell after returning, visit a hospital promptly and tell the doctor which country you visited.’
That alone would suffice.
Occasionally, for reasons unknown, some patients inexplicably hide the fact that they traveled to India or Southeast Asia.
From that point on, the doctor must deduce it alone.
Typhoid Fever is an acute systemic infectious disease caused by a type of Salmonella bacterium.
Of course, contrary to popular prejudice, not all Salmonella bacteria are problematic.
Originally found in human digestive tracts and reptiles, some are beneficial while others are dangerously virulent.
Such pathogens spread through mere skin contact with reptiles or amphibians, and further disseminate through the feces of infected persons.
When the bacterial count in the body reaches approximately one million to over one billion depending on the individual, it begins to proliferate in earnest.
Amusingly, when these bacteria enter livestock like cattle or pigs, nothing happens.
They thrive naturally and exit through feces without issue.
And when a person drinks from a river contaminated by that feces, they become infected.
‘In modern times, blood culture tests and even bone marrow culture tests would allow 100% diagnosis.’
The situation here bears an unsettling resemblance to India.
Many patients who’ve traveled there contract it, where feces from infected persons or animals drift through water sources, and when people wash their hands and prepare food with that water, the food naturally becomes contaminated.
It can even spread through the corpses of the deceased.
‘Why was the sky burial site placed there?’
The previous shaman had designated a different location.
Given the nature of sky burial, even in the most suitable location, bacteria spread through air by wind.
In this vast natural world where moths are the size of a human head and eagles the size of tents, preventing animals from scavenging is not easy.
In fact, if animals scavenge more heavily, it’s believed the deceased has gone to a good place.
Since such infectious transmission cannot be prevented, sky burial is illegal in the Republic of Korea.
For the same reason, both sky burial and water burial are illegal.
Mongolia once had sky burial traditions as well, but now it’s illegal for the same reasons as in the Republic of Korea.
Still, the old burial grounds would be far better than the location the Shaman had designated, and being far removed from any human settlements, such a large-scale epidemic outbreak shouldn’t have occurred.
‘In the end, those people I saw when I first arrived must have been Typhoid Fever Patients.’
And the pathogens from those corpses were spreading in all directions through animals and the nearby river flowing through the area.
‘This… I might have caught it too.’
For some reason, that mango punch had tasted delicious.
‘The incubation period for Typhoid Fever is about one to three weeks, isn’t it.’
No one knows when the onset will occur during this period.
As always, disease cares nothing for human circumstances, and death begins from the smallest of places.
We were all carrying time bombs.
* * *
With the help of the Medical Staff and persistent pulse diagnosis examining various Patients, it ultimately appeared to be Typhoid Fever.
‘We’re done for. This is bad.’
The funny thing was that I myself could easily succumb to it as well.
Even the other Martial Artists of Baekrin Uiseon had eaten that punch, so we were finished.
Though there was one saving grace.
‘Antibiotics are at least effective against this disease.’
Research has shown that any type of antibiotic has clinical efficacy in treating Typhoid Fever.
Of course, in modern times, we use quinolone-class antibiotics composed of pure chemical compounds—the pinnacle of modern chemistry!
But there’s no point in lamenting what we don’t have.
This place doesn’t even have superviruses, and penicillin is already showing clinical effectiveness and is still being used, so we can handle this sufficiently.
‘This is better than cholera.’
Moving around with large groups of people, I had brought everything from penicillin to streptomycin, which hasn’t yet reached mass production—it was a stroke of divine providence.
‘I’m grateful I brought plenty.’
However, the problem wasn’t there. The complications that arise as Typhoid Fever progresses were the real issue.
First, if intestinal perforation occurs, the perforated intestine must be surgically resected, and we must use large amounts of antibiotics that eliminate anaerobic bacteria.
Whatever antibiotic works on Typhoid Fever, that’s what we use.
‘For the fever to drop, it takes two or three days… For it to return to normal body temperature, at least five days minimum. Even after symptoms end, antibiotic treatment must continue.’
On top of that, Oh Dok-mun will definitely bring Martial Artists, so there will be war.
We need support from Baekrin Uiseon Buntta. But the distance from here to Buntta is…
‘I have to prepare for war while caring for Patients.’
The place we can get the most help from is the Tang Family Medical Guild.
But I can’t involve the Tang Family in this matter.
If I do, it will truly become a war.
‘Already… once I’ve decided to save these people, there’s no turning back, is there.’
My hands had grown cold.
Someone approached across the tilted world.
It was strange. Only this person’s face remained untilted…
“Hyeong?”
“Yeah. Why are you sitting like that?”
Sama Hyeon was tilting his head at an angle, looking down at me.
To others, it would have seemed like an odd angle, but from my perspective, only Sama Hyeon appeared perfectly upright.
It was a strange phenomenon.
Sama Hyeon continued speaking.
“Want help from Geumhyeolbang?”
“What?”
“Aren’t you worried that accepting the Tang Family’s help might escalate this into a state-level conflict?”
He’d hit the mark.
Sama Hyeon continued.
“You’re forgetting? Geumhyeolbang Bunta is closer than the Tang Family Medical Guild. There’s nowhere Geumhyeolbang Bunta doesn’t reach, and they even have people inside Oh Dok-mun. And you seem to have forgotten—Geumhyeolbang’s primary business is legitimate trade and transportation.”
“…Not smuggling?”
At my words, Sama Hyeon chuckled.
“Well, we do transport items that are somewhat difficult to define legally.”
The world calls that illegal.
“Why are you tilting your head like that?”
“….”
Sama Hyeon just laughed.
Then he said this.
“Anyway, you’ll use them, right? Geumhyeolbang.”
“I’ll need a lot. Are you sure about that?”
“Yeah. It’s money your hyeong earned, so don’t worry and use it. That’s why I came up here.”
“I need more antibiotics from Baekrin Uiseon. I’ll probably need to transport a large quantity. And if war breaks out, I’ll need martial artists…specifically ones from the heterodox sects.”
“So you don’t want this to escalate to a state-level conflict.”
I nodded.
“Actually, I’m not sure. If we want to execute these people, we’d have to fight us, and they’d shed far more blood. It’s utterly irrational. Logically speaking, we should talk and compromise.”
Sama Hyeon laughed at that.
“But you know your hyeong won’t do that, right~?”
If that were the case, there would be no wars even on Earth.
On the other side of Earth, people shoot guns just to get a single pack of cigarettes.
Throughout human history, humans have never been particularly rational creatures.
“Want me to tell you an easier way, hyeong?”
“To withdraw my hand and run away right now?”
“Yeah. If you leave, these people will be executed. If that doesn’t work, they’ll execute the clan too. Even if the clan’s bloodline dries up, if the plague doesn’t improve, they’ll start executing weaker clans.”
At that, I chuckled.
“They’re not going to replace the Shaman?”
Sama Hyeon shook his head.
“If the Shaman were stupid and weak, they’d be replaced. But looking at his face, he’ll keep the position for a long time.”
That was Sama Hyeon’s crude physiognomy.
When it came to villains, it showed a 100% accuracy rate.
* * *
The village where the clan lived was called Hoyabara in this region’s language.
In the language of the Central Plains, it would be called something like the Snake’s Den—quite a tasteless name, I must admit.
The villagers subsisted on small-scale farming nearby, gathering fruits, poisonous plants, and medicinal herbs.
They also hunted wild beasts to survive, with a population of barely two hundred souls of all ages combined.
Among them, exactly thirty-four had begun showing symptoms of illness.
Six were in critical condition—those who had developed complications such as intestinal perforation or bowel obstruction.
In other words, thirty-four mild cases and six critical cases.
It took nearly half a day just to assess the situation.
I had to examine every single villager and determine whether they were afflicted or not.
Of course, I knew this would take considerable time.
‘But we don’t have time.’
I had to complete all preparations before the Shaman gathered Oh Dok-mun’s warriors and launched an assault.
That’s why I issued separate instructions to Sama Hyeon and the four martial artists from Baekrin Uiseon.
The first thing I did was establish a makeshift infirmary.
I had the martial artists construct simple tents to isolate the patients, and they soon dotted the village’s outskirts.
This was only possible because I had watched various documentaries and survival broadcasts like “Surviving Alone in the Forest” back in Korea.
Simple shelters made from wood and leaves.
They blocked the rain and provided some protection from sunlight and wind.
Since Typhoid Fever was contagious, isolating the patients was naturally the priority.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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