Chapter 511 A Dream of Youth 43
"Father, that person's eyes are so red, it's a bit scary."
Xie Wangzhi looked in the direction Xie Ning pointed and was also startled. There was more than one boy with red eyes. If there was only one, it might not be a big deal, but if there were multiple people, then we had to be careful.
Moreover, he had seen a similar illness before, called "Heavenly Red Eyes," which was caused by the spread of miasma and combined with floods... Xie Wangzhi did not delay any longer and hurriedly ran to the soldiers to request a report.
This disease is contagious. If it is not controlled, the entire city will be infected, and there is no guarantee that there will be other diseases among them.
If Bao'er hadn't reminded him, he would have really overlooked this matter.
When Magistrate Cheng, who was working in the prefectural office, heard the report from below, his heart sank. It was not that he hadn't thought about the epidemic, but disaster relief was not something he was specifically in charge of; he was only responsible for settling some refugees who had come to the prefectural city.
The higher-ups will definitely send a physician down, but in such a short time, the physician won't arrive that quickly.
Unexpectedly, an epidemic actually broke out among these refugees. They could not be kept. No, not that they could not be kept, but they had to be gathered together. They could not be allowed into the city, nor could they be allowed to run away to other places.
Fortunately, the Prince of Duan sent some suggestions on resettling the refugees the day before yesterday; otherwise, he would have let them into the city as usual.
Magistrate Cheng wasn't particularly clever, but he was good at listening to advice, whether from superiors or subordinates.
"Qingyun, what do you think we should do? Should we report this to the prefect and ask him to bring more physicians to our area?"
Qing Yunzheng was Magistrate Cheng's advisor, and the measures for arranging refugees this time were modified by him based on the situation in the prefectural city. "That would be too late, sir."
Lin Qingyun pondered for a moment, “There are many doctors in the prefectural city. Your Excellency can temporarily summon and hire them to solve the immediate problem. Also, there are medicinal herbs. In order to prevent some merchants and pharmacies from hoarding medicinal herbs after learning about this, the prefectural government should purchase some medicinal herbs from the pharmacies in advance.”
"But this isn't a solution. Those businessmen are very shrewd, and the price of medicine will go up soon."
Magistrate Cheng sighed, "The news might have already leaked out."
“Then deal with it severely. It just so happens that Prince Duan is here. Why don’t you send someone to invite Prince Duan to take charge? If there are any hoarders or speculators, then punish them according to the law.”
If they were merely ordinary merchants, they would not be afraid, as the current dynasty had established a system of price appraisal.
According to economics, commodity prices are determined by the market under a market system. However, under the traditional economic model of the Great Zhou Dynasty, prices were set uniformly by the government.
In other words, the government would appraise the goods and then set a uniform selling price.
The imperial court also formulated many laws and regulations regarding commodity prices; if the price of medicine suddenly increased, it would be illegal.
What's worrisome is that the merchants are backed by officials who are even more powerful than them. That would be bad. The current dynasty doesn't prohibit officials from engaging in business, and even the merchants themselves have shops and caravans that specialize in trading.
If we push this matter onto Prince Duan, who is always impartial and incorruptible, no one here can get past him.
The two discussed their next steps in hushed tones. Meanwhile, Xie Ning and Chen Yuncheng had already been packed up and taken home. Even the adults didn't linger.
After returning, she washed herself with hot water. Xie Ning sat by the bed while Qing Li dried her hair, while Chen Shi sat at the table burning incense. It wasn't the homemade plum blossom incense she usually made, but sandalwood incense that she had specially bought from the incense seller.
The house and the people inside had been fumigated with Atractylodes macrocephala beforehand.
Once his hair was almost dry, Xie Ning got out of bed and ran to the study. Sure enough, the father and son were there looking for books. There weren't many medical books in the house, only the Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic and similar texts.
However, Xie Wangzhi still found some records about the epidemic in a miscellaneous book, "Indeed, it is the Heavenly Red Eye."
Xie Ning and Xie Qi huddled together to look, and discovered that what was called "Heavenly Red Eye" was actually conjunctivitis, a disease that is transmitted through contact.
It is mostly caused by wind-heat toxins invading the eyes; or by accumulated heat in the lungs and stomach, with internal and external pathogens combining to attack the eyes and cause the disease.
In the beginning, people will feel itchy and dry eyes, and gradually develop gritty eyes, burning pain, photophobia, difficulty opening the eyelids, excessive tearing, sticky eye discharge, and red veins around the whites of the eyes. In severe cases, there may be punctate or patchy bleeding on the whites of the eyes and the inner surface of the eyelids, redness and swelling of the eyelids, painful swelling in front of the ears, or systemic symptoms such as chills, fever, nasal congestion and runny nose, and general malaise.
This is a fairly obvious epidemic.
The peak of the infectious disease outbreak is likely to be about a week after the flood recedes. Xie Ning had written an article on epidemic prevention before, so he still remembers it clearly.
A few examples alone include cholera, bacterial dysentery, hepatitis A, typhoid fever, paratyphoid fever, leptospirosis, epidemic hemorrhagic fever, epidemic encephalitis B, malaria, conjunctivitis, dermatitis, and so on.
She certainly knew how to treat it and remembered the prescription, but she didn't know how to take it out.
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