Strange Illnesses

Xu Chen leafed through some of the records and found that Senior Ouyang had thoughtfully requested statistics from a month ago, when the hospitals were under less pressure, as well as statistics from this month, when the pressure was greater. He was a little touched.

He really had taken Xu Chen's affairs to heart.

Since Ouyang Xing had already sorted the records, Xu Chen easily divided them into two piles. Now the difference was obvious at a glance.

The statistics for this month used more than twice as much paper as last month's—a difference visible to the naked eye.

Still, he would have to look at the contents for the details, and those had actually been sorted by hospital department as well.

Xu Chen gave them a quick look, and his expression changed. The department under the greatest pressure was oncology.

Of course, it wasn't quite accurate to say the pressure was on oncology alone. Generally speaking, even tumors and cancers on their own weren't simple. The pressure they put on a hospital was widespread, involving every other department—for example, in cases of lung cancer.

Lung cancer was usually a malignant tumor that developed within lung tissue, so oncology specialists generally assessed and handled the initial diagnosis and treatment.

Oncologists had in-depth knowledge of tumors and professional experience, enabling them to provide comprehensive recommendations for cancer treatment.

Other departments were also involved in the course of lung cancer treatment, such as radiology, surgery, and chemotherapy. These departments worked together as a multidisciplinary team to develop the best treatment plan.

Physicians in internal medicine also played an important role. They were responsible for comprehensive physical examinations, taking medical histories and conducting additional tests, providing supportive care, managing and preventing lung cancer-related complications, and handling postoperative rehabilitation and follow-up.

Therefore, depending on where the cancer developed, the corresponding departments generally had to collaborate on treatment. Oncology couldn't take all the credit for successfully treating a tumor or cancer.

It only meant that the patient was under oncology's care.

But as Xu Chen looked through the records, he saw that while there were many tumor, or cancer, patients, their numbers hadn't reached an outrageous level. Yet these hospitals were still dealing with more patients than they could accommodate, so he continued reading.

Before long, he was utterly baffled and had no idea what was going on.

"Idiopathic cryoglobulinemia, scleroderma, rheumatoid arthritis? What are these things?" Xu Chen pulled out his ever-reliable phone to search for them. He wanted to find out what kind of diseases they were.

But after leafing through the rest and finding that it was mostly a long list of diseases he had never seen or heard of, Xu Chen promptly turned to Ouyang Xing for help.

Ouyang Xing was reading while he waited for the samples to be processed. He looked surprised when he saw Xu Chen arrive. "What's wrong? Did you find the problem that quickly?"

Xu Chen gave an embarrassed laugh. "No, there are some parts I don't understand."

"Tell me. Which parts?"

"Here, here, and here..."

Ouyang Xing stared in bewilderment as Xu Chen pointed out nearly thirty percent of the document. It was like a teacher telling a student to skip the questions they couldn't answer on a test, only for the student to skip every question after the first, on and on.

He didn't know any of them.

"Stop, stop. You're a medical student. The names are written right there, and you still don't recognize them? Let me take a look first." Ouyang Xing snatched the document and flipped through it. A few glances left him somewhat puzzled too. He turned a few more pages and discovered that he couldn't recognize every disease either... This was awkward.

Blushing, he glanced at Xu Chen, then at the machine processing the samples beside him. He looked at Xu Chen again, then at the machine, and finally said, "Wait a moment."

Ouyang Xing took the document and hurried off. Xu Chen saw him apparently looking for someone, asking around the lab before finally heading straight out the door.

After only a short wait, Ouyang Xing returned with the document in his hands. This time, he looked much more confident, though there was also some puzzlement on his face.

"Xu Chen, I asked around. These are basically all rare diseases. You don't see them often, so it's normal that you haven't heard of them."

Now Xu Chen was puzzled again. "If they're rare diseases... then they should be pretty rare, right? Is it normal for them to turn up in a cluster like this?"

Ouyang Xing gave a wry smile. "I'm wondering about that too. How could this be normal? Rare diseases are rare because their incidence is low, and their clinical manifestations vary, making them difficult even to diagnose. With so many patients with rare diseases turning up all at once, no wonder the pressure on the hospitals has surged."

"Then... what could be causing this?"

"I don't know. I discussed it with someone just now and found that most of these are immune diseases. Most are difficult to cure, and a few are incurable. For one thing, the patients' quality of life drops sharply. The factors that can cause these diseases vary wildly; there's no single, definite source."

"Then why are there so many patients?"

Ouyang Xing's eyes widened. "Are you asking the same question again? I don't know."

"...What factors can cause rare immune diseases like these?"

"Too many to count, but they can roughly be divided into four categories: genetics, environment, immune system disorders, and autoimmune responses. If you want to trace the source of these rare diseases, I doubt you'll have much luck. Even immunology experts wouldn't dare guarantee an answer."

Xu Chen frowned and leafed through the rest of the records. Aside from cancer and immune-related diseases, the incidence of other minor illnesses was also rising.

He flipped through the pages quickly, then suddenly froze.

He turned back one page. Nothing.

He turned back another page, and cold sweat broke out on his back as he read it.

Neonatal deformity.

There was no further written description in the record. It simply listed the baby's condition: a short-limb deformity on the right side.

Xu Chen searched the other records for related information and found thirteen cases of neonatal deformities. The most horrifying one was something he could imagine just from reading the words: a parasitic fetus attached to the head. It had already begun to develop a face, and with just a little more development, the parasitic fetus would have had a life of its own.

Only then did he hate how active his imagination was. If only the words could pass through his mind without leaving an impression and then be forgotten.

Even thinking about it now, Xu Chen felt his SAN value plummeting.

Still, he forced himself to keep reading. After all, he hadn't found the cause yet.

Then Xu Chen stared in puzzlement at the large word "unknown" written in the record, lost in thought.

Quite a few of the world's eight major pollution disasters were very similar to this, such as Japanese Minamata disease and other smog incidents. Hawaii had also been a nuclear testing ground, and local radiation levels exceeded safety limits, resulting in many deformed infants. But those cases were essentially caused by chemicals and radiation.

As a major grain-producing province, Nanhua had virtually no chemical plants or the like in sight. Even where there were some, they were generally nowhere near the cities. These hospitals were all inside cities. Could chemical pollution be spreading within them?

Looking at the word "unknown," Xu Chen dismissed the thought. If there were chemical pollution, the hospitals would surely have detected it.