I Became a Plague Doctor in a Romance Fantasy Novel

Dispatch Duty of the Plague Doctor (3)

Night has already arrived.

But the plague doesn’t sleep just because it’s night, so we, its opponents, can’t go to sleep either.

Plague or whatever, I’m going to die. I heard something about a guest room in Lapis Castle earlier, but I didn’t have time to leave the relief center.

I only took a brief nap in something like a hammock in the corner. Istina was dozing off while standing.

It’s what we always do.

Anyway, the emergency room is on a three-shift system.

It’s hard to leave work when people are dying next to you. None of my patients died thanks to the hard work of feeding them water.

If you think about it a little, it’s an unbearably unpleasant fact. It shouldn’t be that a patient dies just because the medical staff didn’t feed them water once… But it must have happened yesterday.

There’s nothing I can do. I can stay awake, but I can’t use shadow clone jutsu.

“Oh. The sun is up, Istina. Time to work.”

“Last night, people…”

Several people died last night.

Was it because I couldn’t sleep all night, or was it because I was mentally exhausted? Istina’s hands were trembling a little. I looked at Istina.

“Our patients didn’t die, right?”

“No.”

“Don’t think about anything else. It’ll wear you out.”

The hospital is a place where people come to die. People who are dying can’t help but come out. I ran around like a real dog all night.

But when the sun rises, there will be a bit more manpower. Now we have to see the number of patients coming in today, hoping it has decreased a bit.

“Do you think the number of patients will decrease today?”

“I really hope it decreases.”

You never know.

I hope the effect of pouring vodka into every well yesterday worked, but I don’t know the results yet. We’ll have to see.

Still. Several of the patients we’re seeing now might be able to be discharged today. If the situation stabilizes, they might be able to go home.

“Professor Asterix. Could you come to the meeting room for a moment? The lord is looking for you.”

A plague doctor in a white robe.

It was Hedwig again this time. Was there any improvement? Had the number of patients decreased significantly?

Hedwig’s face couldn’t be seen properly because of the beak mask. He must be as tired as we are. The relief center had practically turned into a battlefield.

“What is it?”

“They want to discuss future strategies.”

“I’ll go right away.”

I nodded.

I should go see, not knowing how much disinfection work we’ll have to do today. I also need to check if the officials of Lapis did their job.

Did they do well?

We quickly arrived at the meeting room in Lapis Castle. The meeting room was bustling with people again. Everyone looked haggard, as if they had worked hard all night.

Isn’t it a good omen for now?

“I’m busy.”

Despite the dark circles under his eyes from the night before, the lord of Lapis brightened up as soon as he saw me. Whatever it was, it seemed like there had been some progress overnight.

“Let’s get straight to the point. We spent the night going around the marketplace, checking the distribution of patients. As you said, the plague was spreading around certain wells.”

“Yes.”

“We were right, weren’t we? Cholera is a waterborne disease, caused by contaminated drinking water. Clean water is the solution.”

“I believe so. It seems the policy is working.”

The baron of Lapis nodded.

“Since it all seems to be true, let’s proceed as you suggested. How far have you gotten?”

I was a bit worried.

When John Snow first proposed the fecal-oral transmission route of cholera, government officials acknowledged the effectiveness of Snow’s measures but did not believe the theory.

It was a foolish reason. The idea that fecal-oral transmission was the cause of cholera was too unpleasant for society at the time to accept.

What can you do, you have to face reality.

Fortunately, the baron of Lapis seems to believe me. Even today, I expect the number of new patients to have significantly decreased.

“We poured pure vodka into the wells, but this is only a temporary measure. I think it will all evaporate in a day or two.”

“What is the next solution?”

Multiple layers of solutions are needed.

“We need to find the source of the contamination of the water supply. We should dig a few new wells. It also seems good to tell people to boil their water if possible, especially for children. We should also install sand filters near the wells.”

In England, there was also a temporary order not to drink unboiled water. Whether people actually followed it is questionable.

There were also stories that workers at the brewery did not get cholera.

“Distribute beer to the people, order them to drink boiled water, and place purification devices in front of each well. Make sure to tell them that the treatment for epidemic dysentery is hydration.”

The Baron of Lapis nodded.

“Isn’t there a more fundamental solution?”

“Well, now that we have identified the countermeasures and the cause, it should be a bit better. We need to think about a more fundamental solution though…”

It’s an overall improvement of the water supply and sewage system. But if I bring this up, won’t I just get scolded?

Teacher Pirho, another victory today.

Of course, Pirho went a step further, advocating for the introduction of democracy, tax cuts, infrastructure expansion, and road network improvements.

That’s why he was branded a revolutionary.

I thought a bit more about my words.

“Epidemic dysentery is a disease caused by multiple overlapping factors. Malnutrition, problems with the water supply and sewage system, contaminated water sources, and lack of hygiene all contribute to it.”

Lapis’s eyes narrowed slightly.

“Yes.”

“There is a fundamental solution, but it will take considerable time and money.”

It seemed like he didn’t want to hear that.

“Alright, I understand for now.”

“That’s a matter for later. Most of it can be solved with just sand filters. Don’t worry too much.”

“But, what is the principle of a sand filter? I prepared as you suggested, but…”

It’s simple.

You filter water through sand. Bacteria are microscopic particles, so if you pass water through sand, won’t the bacteria be caught?

They will be.

The principle of capturing bacteria requires some thought. It’s more complicated than it seems.

Bacteria settled in the sand form a biofilm. It may sound ironic, but bacteria cannot pass through the biofilm created by other bacteria.

A perfect semi-permeable membrane that even bacteria cannot pass through is formed. Strangely enough, the filtering power of the sand purifier comes from the bacterial membrane.

The role of adsorbing fine particles is rather done by activated carbon. If someone doesn’t know what activated carbon is, think of it as charcoal.

Anyway.

We moved to the workshop inside Lapis Castle. The sand purifier itself can be made without difficulty with the technology of these people.

It’s not a matter of special technology.

“Professor, can sand and charcoal really purify water? Enough to filter out bacteria?”

“It’s possible.”

I’ve already been monologuing about this topic in my head for a while. It’s bothersome to explain again.

It seems that the officials really stayed up all night. Several sand purifiers were already completed. When you pour water…

Purified water comes out. Of course, assuming that the bucket for collecting water and the pipe from which the water comes out are not contaminated.

It’s much better than nothing.

“Do you think this is successful?”

“Indeed. It works well.”

It will take about a day for the biofilm to form inside the sand purifier. I don’t know if the effect will be dramatic yet.

And, the next morning.

As I mentioned earlier, the median incubation period of cholera is around a day. If the measures we took were effective, the number of patients should have decreased by now. I wonder if it has decreased. It seems much quieter than when we first arrived.

“It’s much quieter than before, anyway.”

“Don’t say that. A patient is coming.”

We opened the door of the relief center –

This time, not a single person was standing in line in front of the relief center. It meant that no one had come to the relief center last night due to the worsening illness.

“What is this.”

Istina was horrified.

It’s still too early to be relieved. More people will come today. It’s just that no one was waiting at dawn.

“Do you think it’s resolved?”

“Yes… How did you know?”

Future knowledge.

It’s literally textbook material.

“Follow the logic. We hypothesized that epidemic dysentery is transmitted through water.”

“Right.”

“We proved this hypothesis through the geographical distribution of patients. And as a solution, we purified all the water sources in the city, and this is the result.”

Istina pondered a bit.

“It’s ridiculous. Countless people must have died from epidemic dysentery until now, and it was such a simple problem to solve.”

What’s simple about it? I can barely walk after being on duty for three days.