A new Lung Fever
St. Louis, Missouri, United States.
At a public hospital, an unusual patient was being rushed in by ambulance.
"Make way! Please, make way!"
A nurse pushed the patient toward the emergency room at a dead run.
The doctors, already prepared, were waiting inside.
The patient was a middle-aged Black woman. She looked as though she were having an asthma attack or suffocating, her face contorted with pain.
The doctor took out a pair of medical scissors and cut open her top, exposing her reddened chest.
When he touched it, it was almost hot enough to burn his hand.
"Start cooling the patient immediately! Administer painkillers and prepare for an endoscopic examination of her airways..."
The attending physician issued one order after another to his assistants, his own hands busy helping attach monitoring sensors to various parts of the patient's body.
After more than an hour of work, they finally brought her condition temporarily under control through external cooling and a ventilator.
Dr. Aven emerged from the emergency room looking exhausted.
People from the Disease Control and Prevention Center were already waiting outside: a medical professional and two people who looked like bodyguards.
"Hello, Dr. Aven. We're from the Disease Control and Prevention Center. Here are my credentials."
The woman leading them showed him her identification.
Aiven glanced at it, reading silently to himself: Josephine, virology specialist.
"Whatever it is, let's talk as we walk."
He showed little interest in their arrival and continued toward the restroom without stopping.
"Doctor, how many patients with that condition have you treated now?"
That was precisely what worried Aiven.
"Twenty-three. I still can't find the cause."
As though something had occurred to him, he turned to the brown-haired woman.
"But the patients aren't contagious, and the condition isn't caused by