Chapter 276: Transmission Routes of Infectious Diseases

Leon’s premonition was soon confirmed.

After returning to the Labyrinth Fortress, he explained the situation to Weiss and Rena, then ordered the entire Labyrinth Fortress to temporarily halt work and began gathering manpower to deal with the possible plague.

He sealed off the Pier on the western side and the harbor on the eastern side and began strictly restricting entry and exit. Aside from necessary information and supply transfers, anyone entering or leaving had to first be isolated and observed for ten days, while all supplies entering or leaving had to undergo certain cleaning procedures.

Just as he had expected, even though his reputation on the island was very good, such strict orders still provoked serious resistance, especially among the workers who normally did not live on the island. Because their homes were in River Valley County, some even got into physical conflicts with the mercenaries enforcing the orders.

Leon issued some appropriate measures to placate them and managed to suppress the unrest for the time being, then began conducting an island-wide count of infected people showing symptoms. Not every infected person would go to the clinic for treatment. Some simply used random folk remedies themselves, while others even endured the illness and waited for it to recover on its own.

After the count was completed, Leon discovered that out of the island’s population of more than eighteen hundred people, there were already one hundred and thirty-six suspected infected people, including seventeen severe fever patients.

Leon immediately sent news of the matter outside and notified Dorothy and Johnny.

Then, by the next day, the recorded number had increased to one hundred and seventy-nine, the number of severe fever patients had abruptly risen to thirty-three, and seven deaths occurred in succession.

Over the following day, the numbers continued increasing rapidly, with the rate of increase growing faster and faster, while the death toll quickly rose into double digits. Every deceased person displayed symptoms of bloody tears.

By the third day, even doctors had begun collapsing.

At the village office of Robert Village on Arend Island, Weiss walked out of the treatment room, removed her mask and gloves, and threw them into a disinfection basin filled with concentrated salt water.

Leon sat inside the room. He stood up and handed Weiss a towel, and Weiss took it and wiped the sweat from her forehead.

“How is it?” Leon asked.

After discovering that patients were appearing in large numbers, Leon had asked Weiss to try researching the illness. After all, she could be considered one of the best Apothecaries in the Church.

Rena and Mrs. Hesh had also begun participating in the research on treating the disease. Both of them had either witnessed or personally experienced illness and suffering, so naturally they also wanted to help the sick.

Leon was very worried that they might be in danger from coming into contact with the patients, but at the same time, he realized that properly researching this disease would probably be impossible without them.

“From what I’ve researched so far, the course of the disease is surprisingly consistent. First there is an infectious period lasting around five to ten days. At the beginning, it is always coughing, sneezing, and discomfort in the eyes, just like a cold. A small number have no symptoms at all and remain completely latent.

Once this period passes, almost every patient formally develops the disease and collapses from a severe high fever. They experience the same hallucinations before their eyes and occasionally display aggressive behavior.

After onset, death occurs in an average of three days. I tried several common medicines, but none had any effect. Only the formula for Number Nineteen Holy Water can slightly slow the worsening of the illness.” Weiss said with a tired expression.

“Number Nineteen Holy Water……” Leon remembered that this Holy Water was a medicine used to delay the activation of poisons. If Sacred Relic Materials were added, it could even delay the Blood of Malediction. It seemed that it was also somewhat effective against this illness.

But ultimately, this medicine had no curative effect. It merely delayed things, postponing the onset of severe symptoms, but in the end, it still could not save anyone’s life.

“What’s your conclusion?” Leon tried asking Weiss for her opinion.

“The possibility that Arachne caused this is still very high. So far, we haven’t found even a single person who recovered on their own. This disease is extremely dangerous. It is highly infectious before severe symptoms develop, while the mortality rate is high afterward. It is almost as though it was deliberately tailor-made to kill large numbers of people.

Also, from what we can tell at present, the transmission route may not be limited to droplets produced by coughing and sneezing. We’ve already received several reports saying that people living alone who had no contact with anyone else were also infected.” Weiss said.

“If they had no contact with people, could animals be acting as a medium?” Leon immediately became alert after hearing this.

“Animals? The theory of animals acting as a medium? That really is worth considering.” Weiss answered while thinking.

Seeing Weiss’s reaction, Leon suddenly realized that in the Empire of this era, there was still no truly systematic understanding of the existence of microbial Pathogens, nor was there a sufficiently thorough understanding of how diseases spread.

Animals such as rats, mosquitoes, and fleas could all spread the Pathogens they carried to humans. That way, even without person-to-person contact, people could still become sick if infected animals contaminated food or the environment.

“Then we’ll also have to organize people to exterminate rats, mosquitoes, and other insects.” Leon pondered. Suddenly realizing something, he looked toward Weiss, “If this is a plague released by Arachne, could it be…… that the Magical Beasts she raised are spreading it?”

“It’s possible. The idea of Witches using Magical Beasts to spread plagues has existed for a very long time.” Weiss cautiously replied.

Magical Beasts were highly aggressive toward humans. If there were ultra-miniature Magical Beasts capable of disguising themselves as mosquitoes or similar insects, they would undoubtedly make an excellent channel for distributing Pathogens on a massive scale.

Considering that there had currently been no reports of Magical Beast sightings, even if Magical Beasts were present, they were probably small enough to be easily overlooked.

“Weiss, I’ll handle the raw materials. You’ll be responsible for producing Number Nineteen Holy Water in batches for the patients.” Leon proposed.

“The medical care you’re providing right now is completely free. If you intend to give Number Nineteen Holy Water to every patient, the cost will be astonishing!” Weiss warned.

“The problems in this territory must be completely resolved by us.” Leon replied seriously.

“Then what are all those gauze and sponges you bought and had delivered for?” Weiss tried asking.

“They’re for making face masks.” Leon answered.

“Face masks?” Weiss was unfamiliar with the concept.

“Four layers of gauze with one layer of sponge between them, then elastic bands hooked around the ears to cover the mouth and nose. Just like this mask, except they can be mass-produced so everyone can use one.” Leon answered.

In terms of cost and production difficulty, it was unrealistic to issue this kind of leather epidemic-prevention mask to everyone. Although a simple face mask made of gauze and sponge would also have very limited filtration effectiveness, it could at least somewhat hinder droplet transmission.

But if this disease really did involve infected animals as Weiss suspected, then relying solely on isolation between people to deal with the problem would probably be far from enough.

Leon first flipped through the recently compiled reports and soon found the infected person living alone whom Weiss had mentioned, so he decided to investigate that person’s house.

“I’ll be responsible for verifying this transmission route.” Leon replied.

Afterward, he sent someone with a tube of Magic Essence, had it opened, and carefully placed inside the solitary resident’s house. Magic Essence had the effect of attracting Magical Beasts.

About half a day later, his subordinate sealed the test tube and brought it back.

Leon picked up the test tube and carefully compared it against the light. He discovered that inside the transparent tube, faintly visible insects resembling winged ants were crawling up and down between the Magic Essence crystals, so tiny that they were difficult to see with the naked eye.

“Arachne……” Leon became even more certain of it and clenched his fist.

With matters having developed to this point, he had to discuss things with Dorothy as soon as possible.