Chapter 120 Tropical Disease Research Center
January 4, 1868
Berlin is the political center of Prussia and also one of its academic centers.
Many Prussian universities, academic and research institutions are gathered here.
Today, Ernst also runs a medical research institute in Berlin - the Center for Tropical Diseases.
Ernst's knowledge of medicine is like blowing fire with a rolling pin, he knows nothing. But with money, there is nothing that cannot be done, and with the funds in place, there are many talented people to invest.
The Tropical Disease Research Center, as the name suggests, its research projects are mainly aimed at conquering tropical diseases.
As a mid-latitude country with no overseas colonies, Prussia's research on tropical diseases was basically zero compared with that of Britain, France and other countries at the same time.
In this era, not to mention the study of tropical diseases, even common infectious diseases are still in the exploratory stage, so it is absolutely difficult to achieve results.
Ernst does not expect that his research results will immediately improve medical conditions in East Africa, but it is definitely a good idea to make technical preparations in advance.
Why in the past, those Western medical companies and research institutions were able to monopolize the most cutting-edge theories and technologies in medicine?
It was because they started early, and with the support of the strong national strength of the West, they were able to build a solid fortress.
The Center for Tropical Disease Research is tasked with preparing technology and experience for the future medicine of East Africa. Falling behind by one step is not a problem, but falling behind step by step is a scary thing.
Although the name of the Center for Tropical Diseases contains the word "tropical", its research areas are not actually limited to the tropics.
The research center will be divided into two parts, one in East Africa and the other in Berlin.
After all, it is difficult to obtain tropical virus and bacterial samples (living ones are okay) when conducting infectious disease research in Berlin without preservation technology, so the Berlin section mainly studies traditional diseases in continental Europe.
In East Africa, establishing a tropical disease research center would definitely cost more money. For example, the personnel can only be medical talents with higher education in Europe.
Without huge benefits, who would go to Africa to risk their lives for you? It is not ruled out that there are people who are purely passionate and have lofty ideals and are willing to sacrifice their lives for the cause of human medicine, but everyone still has to eat.
Therefore, the salaries of the staff at the East African Tropical Disease Research Centre must not be low, and they must also be provided with huge insurance premiums to eliminate their worries.
Medical equipment is another huge expense that cannot be saved. If you want to achieve results, you must have the most advanced medical tools.
Berlin is not so bad, but for East Africa, the goods still need to be transported across the sea, which is time-consuming, laborious and costly.
At the same time, Ernst plans to purchase a batch of medical materials from all over the world for reference by professionals.
For example, penicillin. Ernst had heard in his previous life that ancient China had come into contact with this kind of thing. Ernst didn't know whether it was true or not. After all, the Internet in his previous life was just a big ditch, and rumors didn't cost anything to spread.
However, "artemisinin" has official endorsement, so it must be recorded in ancient Chinese medical books.
In addition to traditional Chinese medicine, other parts of the world have their own medicine, or witch doctors.
There are always some successful cases and mature medicines in these medical fields for professionals to study.
In fact, according to the characteristics of this era, there is no need to set up a separate disease research center in the colony.
Many countries set up research institutes in their own country and collect samples from all over the world.
The reason why Ernst went to great lengths to replicate a research center in East Africa was mainly due to cognitive fear.
In the past life, the infectious diseases in Africa were very notorious, AIDS, Ebola, Marburg... each of them was a viral ceiling.
Therefore, Ernst was very cautious. What if he brought virus samples from Africa to Europe and caused huge losses... the consequences would be disastrous, especially if the source was traced back to Ernst and it was discovered that he was the one who caused it. Then there would be no place for Ernst in the world.
Of course, this is a bit of an unnecessary worry. There are special reasons why Africa was a hotbed of viruses in the past.
As the origin of mankind, Africa retains the most diverse genes, which provides many possibilities for virus mutation.
Plus the poor hygiene conditions of Africans, such as drinking dirty water and eating raw meat...
There are other conditions that are conducive to the generation of viruses, such as war and poor medical conditions, which is why Africa became a hotbed of viruses in the past.
As for the natural environment, South America, India and Africa are similar, which shows that the environment is not the main reason.
Moreover, the East African colony opened up by Ernst was itself responsible for the task of expelling the local ethnic group, which reduced the genetic diversity of the local ethnic group.
At the same time, sanitary conditions in the colonies were improved and wild animals (especially primates) near the settlements were cleared, further reducing the breeding and spread of viruses and diseases.
With the growing expansion of East African colonies, the entire African landscape will certainly be affected in the future. It is hard to say whether those terrifying viruses from previous lives will emerge.
For example, AIDS originated in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and appeared around the mid-to-late 20th century.
It's still early! According to the speed of East African colony expansion and the current expansion goals, sooner or later East African colony will take over the Mitumba Mountains in the west and the plateau area in southern Congo.
These are places where tropical savannas and tropical rainforests meet, which are suitable for agricultural development. In the past, Rwanda occupied part of Congo's territory in the Mitumba Mountains.
Ernst has not yet considered whether he will take over the entire Congo. After all, the tropical rainforest is really difficult to develop, and with the help of the rainforest, the indigenous people there are also difficult to drive out.
However, when the northwest region is taken over, some indigenous people will definitely flee westward to Congo and enter Zambia in the future. The kingdom there also faces the fate of being driven into the Congo rainforest by the East African colonies.
But the rainforest is not a place where humans can survive. In the past, most Congolese people settled along the edge of the Congo Basin.
In order to feed so many people, they could only continue to flee northward, to the Central African grasslands or West Africa.
In any case, the Congo region is definitely different from the previous life, and it is hard to say whether diseases such as AIDS will appear.
However, Ernst's concerns are not unreasonable. The Marburg virus was discovered in the Marburg Laboratory in the Federal Republic of Germany, so it is necessary to establish a separate research center in East Africa.
The Marburg virus originated in monkeys in Uganda and Kenya, which is now the East African territory.
Therefore, at present, Ernst’s extinction activities against native primates in East Africa do make some sense.
You have to know that this is the 19th century, and medical conditions will only be worse than in 1967 (when the Marburg virus was discovered). It is safer to choose to directly eliminate it physically.
(End of this chapter)
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