Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 575

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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 575
‘The short average lifespan here isn’t merely due to climate or parasites. And that’s also why the people of the North Sea Ice Palace must be excluded from the average.’
I grasped what my Master had left unsaid.
After all, I was a Doctor.
Not a politician or ideologue.
I had no desire whatsoever to interfere in another sect’s internal affairs, even having come all the way to this remote region.
Simply saving the patients before my eyes and returning home was already burden enough.
‘Sigh. First, I’ll handle what’s in front of me.’
A treatment facility soldier blocked my path.
No matter how I looked at it, the facial features and hair color of a Middle Kingdom man.
And the clothes he wore, though lacking ornaments, were clearly expensive.
Rather than kicking him like they would the poor, the soldier spoke to me respectfully.
“We are restricting entry due to contagious disease patients inside.”
I presented the letter of introduction from the North Sea Ice Palace.
The soldier answered matter-of-factly.
“Please, go ahead.”
His tone made it clear he wanted no responsibility in this.
As I was guided inside, the treatment facility was packed with sickbeds.
Patient excrement, sweat, and countless odors mingled into a nauseating stench.
The facility was filled with patients’ groans, and some were bound entirely with even their mouths gagged.
Yet they trembled with foam at their lips, as if delirium had set in.
“This patient is in critical condition…!”
There were no attending healers helping.
They merely gazed with hollow eyes.
Only then did I understand.
‘They’re waiting for death.’
For incurable contagious diseases, they would gather them in one place like this, isolate them, wait for death, and then burn the corpses.
In the meantime, whether giving medicine or water was pointless since it couldn’t be cured anyway, so they considered it a waste of resources and simply neglected them.
I hurried over.
I pressed an acupoint to stop the convulsing patient, then examined the skin rash that had broken out on the neck.
Oddly, no rash appeared on the soles of the feet, yet the body burned with high fever, scorching hot.
A patient nearby spoke.
“Should’ve just let them die.”
In that moment—thud, thud!
The patient whose acupoint I’d pressed convulsed again in all four limbs.
“That cannot be.”
“Everyone’s just waiting for their death day… you must be a newcomer healer, still so naive.”
I pressed another acupoint to temporarily calm the convulsing patient.
But I couldn’t know how long it would last.
Fortunately, it appeared to be neurological convulsion from the disease rather than a meridian issue, so pressing the acupoint was merely a measure to keep them from dying—for now.
“Does the patient next to you also lack a rash on the soles of their feet? Ah, and on the palms as well.”
“Fascinating. Can you tell just from looking at one case?”
“Not necessarily.”
I asked various questions.
Whether there were any itchy areas, where the rash had first appeared.
Whether there were chills, fever, or muscle aches.
How many had already recovered.
“Those who can endure about a week survive and leave, while those who can’t will die within that time. That old man I knocked unconscious won’t be able to endure it.”
“Many elderly are dying, then.”
“That’s about right. Children die easily too.”
As I took their pulse, a thought occurred to me.
‘Could this be epidemic typhus…?’
In modern times, a simple blood test would suffice.
Just confirming that alone would be far faster and more accurate.
But that’s impossible now.
Oh Dok-mun’s nightmare came to mind.
‘Putting it all together, it does seem to be epidemic typhus. It’s also an infectious disease that appears in cold regions.’
Epidemic typhus.
It’s also simply called Rickettsia in general.
By the name alone, it might seem like a cousin of typhoid fever, but it’s a completely different disease.
It primarily breaks out in cold regions, and the cause is a small insect—the louse.
When a louse infected with epidemic typhus bites a person’s body and transmits the disease, the feces produced by that louse enter the bloodstream and cause infection.
During World War I, epidemic typhus caused the deaths of as many as three million Russians, and even more people died in Poland and Romania, which correspond to Eastern Europe.
That wasn’t all.
Infections among soldiers skyrocketed, and in Serbia alone, 150,000 soldiers had to die en masse.
Later, the number of patients began to reach nearly tens of millions, with a fatality rate fluctuating between 1 and 20 percent, making it impossible to pin down.
The reason is that its severity varies dramatically depending on age.
It’s fatal to the elderly and young children, but the fatality rate drops significantly in young, healthy individuals.
This was why the patient currently convulsing was elderly.
‘After an incubation period of one to two weeks, chills, headaches, rash, and fever begin, and the rash spreads from the torso to the limbs, but it has the unique characteristic of not appearing on the face, palms, and especially the soles of the feet.’
Thanks to that, I was able to quickly recall epidemic typhus.
‘The problem comes next.’
In patients with weakened immunity.
Auditory hallucinations, visual hallucinations, confusion, and delirium—mental abnormalities are recorded as appearing.
Because the central nervous system is damaged.
When such mental abnormalities overlap with the rash, patients here are usually written off as those who will die.
This place happens to be a cold region, though not completely frozen over.
The lake is warm, so it maintains a reasonably moderate temperature.
Add to that the extreme wealth disparity, and it creates an environment far too ideal for lice to thrive.
And as those lice attach themselves everywhere and breed, they spread the disease.
‘This is… completely different from any epidemic Master treated in the past.’
Treatment with antibiotics is possible.
Not quite as effective as modern antibiotics, but fortunately, according to historical records, there are accounts of treatment with penicillin.
‘According to a paper I casually read back then, when penicillin was administered to seven people, one died and six showed improvement.’
1946.
I remember being amazed that I could view an overseas paper published before I was even born on the internet in my room.
I never thought that silly grin I had about how much better the world had become would actually help in a situation like this.
Though I suspect penicillin doesn’t actually cure epidemic typhus itself, but rather treats secondary infections caused by the disease, allowing the immune system to gain strength to fight against Rickettsia.
If that’s the case, streptomycin, which interferes with bacterial protein synthesis, should also be effective in theory, but I couldn’t be certain since there’s no research data on this aspect.
Penicillin itself was something I stumbled upon while browsing overseas literature websites.
Besides, on Earth it’s a disease that’s been eradicated except in a few African regions.
‘Antibiotics… how long will it take for them to arrive from Baekrin Medical Guild?’
What I currently had was obviously far from sufficient.
And above all, since lice are the problem, cleanliness must be the priority.
Everything must be combed out, disinfected, and washed.
First, I moved to find the Director.
Upon arriving at the Director’s office, I found him using a peculiar instrument on a patient.
When a soldier approached the Director and whispered something in his ear, the Director finally spoke to me in fluent Middle Kingdom language.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you. I am Saint Germain, an alchemist and healer.”
At those words, I was slightly startled.
‘The Saint Germain described in the Jicheon Cheonma has a different appearance?’
Could it be a case of the same name?
There was no way to know at this point.
* * *
The Director’s office had a skeleton model and a human anatomy model prepared.
‘What? These things here?’
The internal organs weren’t depicted in as much detail as in modern times, but it was still clear they were skillfully carved from plaster.
Seeing my surprised expression, he answered.
“I brought them from my homeland where I had been researching. Since I’m from the Western Regions, I was able to obtain permission.”
“From the Western Regions?”
“Ah, I’m from the Western Continent. I heard there was an elixir of immortality in the Eastern Continent, so I came here.”
Was he talking about the elixir of immortality that Emperor Qin sought?
It’s been a long time since Emperor Qin died, yet there are still people who remember it.
“I see.”
“This place has become my second homeland. Especially lately, I’ve grown quite attached to it since I’ve taken on many apprentices. By the way, I’ve already heard much about the White Divine Dragon.”
“You’re too kind.”
He got to the main point.
“What brings you to visit us?”
Getting straight to business seemed to be a characteristic of people here, just like the North Sea Ice Palace Master.
I explained that I had come as an envoy of the Martial Arts Alliance, kept my explanation brief, and simply stated that I came because an epidemic was spreading.
“I’ll need to take a few more pulses to be certain… but it seems like a disease I recognize. If I’m right, there is a treatment for it.”
I had made my diagnosis based on modern knowledge and multiple pulse readings, but I deliberately avoided sounding too confident.
It was to gauge the reaction of this man called Saint Germain.
Saint Germain asked in surprise.
“There is a treatment for it?”
“Yes, if my suspicion is correct. I also have some medicine with me.”
Saint Germain acknowledged this and guided me to the patient.
I handed over some of the Baekrin Divine Elixir I had brought to the healer and instructed them on how to use it and the dosage.
Saint Germain spoke.
“I thought you would use something called surgery, but this is unexpected.”
“I can’t use that recklessly here. Besides, I believe this patient can recover sufficiently with antibiotic treatment. More importantly, the patient needs to be washed and the bedding needs to be laundered or burned. The lice must be eliminated.”
“I will take that into consideration.”
“No, you see—if hygiene isn’t prioritized first, all medicine becomes useless.”
“I will certainly take that into consideration, so please don’t worry.”
‘Ah… this makes me uneasy.’
No matter how much antibiotic I use, if hygiene isn’t improved, the disease becomes meaningless to treat.
I was worried we’d only be building resistance for nothing.
However, he seemed interested in something else entirely.
“If this medicine truly works… could you teach me how to manufacture the Baekrin Divine Elixir?”
I shook my head.
“Even if I taught you, it would be impossible. It requires special equipment and techniques. Even if you tried to make it here, it would take several months at minimum.”
“Ah… what a pity.”
He wore an expression of genuine regret.
I asked.
“I understand you give up on severe patients, but what about mild cases? How do you treat them?”
This time it was I who asked.
Then Saint Germain answered proudly.
“We also treat with medicine. The foundation of our alchemy is mercury and…”
‘Eek! Mercury!’
“…mixed with opium!”
‘Eeeek! Opium?!’
“We make a mercury ointment and apply it to the rash, and it is quite effective.”
At those words, I thought in shock.
‘Nooooo! This… this person is an alchemist. A real alchemist! The kind of alchemist that’s bad for your health!’
Even in Earth’s 18th and 19th centuries, mercury vapor treatment was popular for treating syphilis, directing the vapor at the affected areas.
At the same time, they would also make and use mercury ointments applied to the skin.
According to records, patients reported feeling some improvement immediately.
The problem was that patients later died from complications caused by mercury poisoning.
This was that famous treatment—kill the patient and the disease dies with them.

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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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