A Hospital in Another World? Chapter 1003: Garrett: Cirilla, Good Girls Don't Need to Ask About These Things!

Governor’s mansion on the Storm Islands, what reactions did the Brolin Kingdom and the Radiant Church have after receiving the news? Which strong individuals might come from afar? Garrett had no knowledge of any of this at the moment.

He didn’t even leave the research institute. The Council's large contingent had already left on an airship, leaving behind only a team to monitor the Mage Tower in the capital, Tenochtitlan, and another team to watch the Mage Tower at the port.

The low-level mages, merchants, and magical craftsmen who came with the airship centered around the two Mage Towers, purchasing materials, crafting magical products, and selling them externally.

The particularly energetic ones also explored the highland basin, coming and going, and exploring up and down nearby areas. Occasionally, someone would come and knock on the door:

"Master Nordmark, could you please take a look at what use this plant has?"

Show me a plant? You should at least dig it up with the roots!

What use is a dried, wilted flower to me? Even if I could talk to plants, do you expect me to converse with dead plant parts?

"Master Nordmark, could you please take a look? I got bitten by a bug..."

Stop!

Don’t run away just because you see me take out a small knife!

I need to see if the bug laid eggs in your arm!

Hold Person!

"Master Nordmark, please take a look at this ore..."

Take it away!

I’m not a transmutation specialist!

Ore identification and such, leave it to the alchemy branch! Unless you caught some strange illness from staying with the ore—like if it happens to be a piece of bituminous uranium ore—then come to me!

After experiencing enough of such incidents, Garrett, who initially enjoyed wandering around Tenochtitlan and accompanying Cirilla to see unusual things, eventually stayed inside the research institute, wholly absorbed in studying yellow fever.

He had no choice but to stay in the institute. The airship’s return to Nevis would take at least ten days to half a month at the fastest;

Gathering the plague branch necromancers in Nevis, even if they eagerly signed up, gathered their jars and cans, assembled their guards, and prepared their travel supplies, would still take three to eight days;

And these necromancers couldn’t possibly get a dedicated airship: they had to travel on their own. Taking a ship for one or two months from the east coast of the New World to the west coast, then from the west coast to the Kingdom of the Eagle...

If everything went smoothly, Garrett estimated that getting here before the end of the rainy season would be considered highly efficient.

Until then, the research institute only had Garrett, Archmage Haines, a few necromancers brought by Archmage Haines, and Lynn working diligently inside.

Miss Cirilla was happy to help whenever she felt like it, otherwise, she wandered around; Mr. Baronessimo, although trying hard to help, was limited in his spellcasting abilities and could only act as a second or third-level mage; Bernard...

Besides carrying and lifting things, and directing native warriors to guard prisoners and native slaves to deliver food to the prisoners, Bernard was of no real use.

Moreover, analyzing data and evaluating information, the most crucial tasks, still required Garrett's personal involvement.

"Subject No. 1, normal body temperature!"

"Subject No. 2, normal body temperature!"

"...Subject No. 13, elevated body temperature! Someone, give him a mercury thermometer, tell him to hold it under his tongue and keep his mouth shut for three minutes... Archmage Haines, why can't your skeleton speak?"

"It can speak, but adding the [Glibness] spell to make it say things the other party understands is still under research... Forget it, I'll work a bit harder and cast [Comprehend Languages] on the native."

Lynn put down the record book in his hand and silently glanced at Garrett. Garrett, your expectations are too high!

Previously, he thought the golden skeleton was great: it could do housework, cook, fight, and even pick up Mr. Troka by the scruff of his neck; he was eager to get one.

Then he got Oknjinn, who could help with surgeries and operations, and the golden skeleton immediately lost its charm; he no longer expected Oknjinn to help with cooking, cleaning, or laundry.

Now, he even disliked that the 18th-level Archmage’s skeleton couldn’t speak the native language!

—It’s already impressive that a skeleton can talk, okay? Your Oknjinn can only use its upper teeth to click against its lower teeth, making a series of "clack, clack, clack" sounds!

"...Today's statistics show three groups, 13 people with elevated body temperature, showing suspected yellow fever symptoms. One group is the mosquito group; one group is the blood injection group..."

Garrett reviewed the data for the day, casting spells and examining each patient individually. Besides using [Life Observation Spell], the God of Nature’s divine spells also had similar methods, even more detailed than [Life Observation Spell]:

Who is in good health, who is sick, who is in the early stages of illness, and who is severely ill could be seen at a glance. The important thing was that he didn’t need to listen to heartbeats, measure body temperature, or even enter the room; he could quickly scan through a window and then pull out those with issues for a closer inspection.

As he had suspected, those who lived alongside yellow fever patients with mosquitoes placed inside the railing showed varying degrees of yellow fever symptoms;

Those who lived alone with anti-mosquito magic arrays but were injected with yellow fever patients’ blood showed some symptoms: mainly those patients who had just fallen ill; those who had their condition alleviated or started vomiting blood showed fewer symptoms;

Those living in rooms full of yellow fever patients’ vomit but with anti-mosquito magic arrays had been living there for two weeks, and they were all lively and healthy, with no one affected;

Those in close contact with yellow fever patients...

"Why are three of them sick?"

Garrett scratched his head. Could it be that this damn thing has other modes of transmission besides vector transmission?

If it could be spread by droplets or through the digestive tract, that would be troublesome!

"Let's take a look!"

Garrett frowned and walked towards the isolation ward according to the room numbers in the record book. He dispelled mosquitoes, opened the door, closed the door, and dispelled mosquitoes again. Stepping into the first isolation ward, Garrett glanced around and then held his forehead:

"I asked you to take care of him, why did you beat him?"

The native warrior lying on the ground was bruised and battered, with blood marks all over his face, arms, and body. The Brolin warrior locked up with him had scratch marks all over his arms...

There was even a deep bite mark on his left shoulder, with flesh turned and blood seeping out. Garrett took a look at the native warrior and saw the obvious symptoms of gum bleeding.

Being chained to the wall and still having the strength to fight back, should he praise the native’s strong physique, say the warrior's symptoms were mild, or acknowledge that even a rabbit would bite when cornered?

"He killed my companions! Three people in the same team, two died at his hands!" the Brolin warrior said hatefully, his face twisted in anger. Touching the wound on his face, he couldn't help but hiss in pain. Garrett sighed deeply:

Alright, the mystery of this group is solved. Getting scratched by a monkey with yellow fever can transmit yellow fever, and getting bitten by a person with yellow fever can also transmit yellow fever...

"Move him to another room, don’t let them stay together." Garrett sighed and moved on to the second problematic room. This time, as soon as he stepped into the room, he turned around and left:

"Drag that guy out too! Seriously, after three years on the ship, even the sheep look charming!"

"Why do sheep look charming?" Cirilla, who was following Garrett and hadn’t yet seen the room's interior, asked curiously. Garrett was speechless, turned around, and stared at her:

"Uh... Cirilla, good girls don't need to know about this stuff..."

"But I’m not a human girl! Tell me! Tell me, tell me, tell me!"

"Well, um... Cirilla, after three years on a ship, with nothing to eat but fish, wouldn’t you want to eat the sheep if you saw one?"

Sigh, conducting epidemiological research is really hard. During his previous life when he was studying, those research methods taught in "Epidemiology", such as causation inference, causal logic, design and implementation, bias and control...

Cohort studies, case-control studies, experimental epidemiology research, screening and diagnostic tests...

After doing it himself, sweating profusely and feeling like his head was going to explode, he realized how difficult research was and how great the pioneering researchers were. Thank heavens, with his level of skill, it was fortunate he didn’t pursue an academic path in his previous life but a clinical path...

In any case, after a series of accidents and ruling out unrelated causes, Garrett finally proved the transmission of yellow fever. Great, it’s primarily blood-related, spread through mosquito bites.

Of course, if you get scratched, bitten, or do something you shouldn’t during the patient's illness, leading to blood contact, then... you asked for it...

Garrett exhaled and solemnly wrote the first paper on tropical infectious diseases. At the end of the paper, he even added a complaint:

"Given that there are many types of mosquitoes in the world, perhaps not

every type can spread yellow fever. However, to ensure the safety and health of adventurers, we strongly recommend driving away all mosquitoes..."

Alright, figuring out the transmission method is just the first step; their ultimate goal is to figure out prevention and treatment.

So, how exactly should this damned thing be prevented and treated?

The simplest method is to carry equipment with anti-mosquito magic. Bracelets, pendants, headbands, belts, or cloaks—

The Council already had these magical items, developed by Garrett. But previously, they were not widely used and had low sales, leading to high product prices:

A single-function cloak or belt started at 2000 gold coins; headbands, bracelets, or pendants, being smaller, started at 3000 gold coins...

Only pampered mages who disliked mosquitoes would purchase such equipment. As for ordinary warriors and adventurers:

With two or three thousand gold coins, who would risk their life adventuring?! A bit of smoke to repel mosquitoes or some grass juice to reduce mosquito bites would suffice.

The problem is, smoke works well in a camp but can't protect the entire body when moving around. Grass juice, even if applied all over the arms and legs, what about when you need to use the restroom in the wild?

Hiking and wading, wouldn’t the grass juice wash off?

This method only reduces the likelihood of mosquito bites from 100 times a day to 10 times a day.

What Garrett aimed to do was to reduce the probability from 10 bites a day to zero bites; or, even if bitten a hundred times, yellow fever wouldn’t be transmitted...

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