Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology
Chapter 968: Moroi’s Fiend 7

Chapter 968: Moroi’s Fiend 7

Vijay became quiet. He hadn’t expected that, in this day and age, such a mutation could happen. Because if it wasn’t a mutation, then how else was he supposed to explain the behaviour of this sneaky little germ? From what Vinay said, the way Moroi’s Fiend got triggered sounded a lot like how future germs like the Tuberculosis bacteria or the Epstein-Barr virus stayed hidden.

Its way of staying inside the body without being noticed reminded him of those germs that don’t show symptoms or stay silent for a long time and are hard to catch. And when Vinay talked about its strange size, Vijay immediately thought of Prions, those protein-only germs that caused mad cow disease in his last life.

But still, something didn’t feel right. Vijay noticed a bunch of mistakes, or maybe just a wrong understanding, in what Vinay said. Like when he said one germ recognises another and then gets activated, that doesn’t really happen. And two germs working together like a team? That’s not how it works either. From what Vijay knew, the smaller germ was most likely an asymptomatic one that stayed quiet unless a certain condition was met. The bigger one wasn’t working with it; it just provided the environment or the trigger that helped the smaller one wake up.

If he guessed right, the earlier symptoms are produced by the bigger germ, and these symptoms give a perfect opportunity for the smaller hidden germ to be activated and cause a second wave of symptoms. And finally, now this is, of course, his assumption, but the final stage of the disease might be that the smaller germ, by its second wave of symptoms, creates the best situation for the larger germ to multiply and wreak havoc in the system.

If he is not wrong, both are separate germs, not the same germ. They both have different properties and different genetic structures, but since they both are bacteria originating from the same location, and both are spore bacteria, they seem to have formed a puzzle-like pair where one germ covers the weakness of the other and inadvertently appears to be working together like a couple.

Of course, Vijay didn’t say all this because even if he said the truth, he would not be helping the cause of disease prevention in any way, since advanced drugs cannot be synthesised in this day and age. Not to mention, he didn’t want to rob the empire of a brilliant scientist who might discover these truths by themselves.

Vinay, completely oblivious to the thoughts of the emperor, continued to speak.

" The incubation period for the smaller germ is unknown, your majesty, but for the larger one it is around 2 to 5 days. "

" As for the known symptoms, the early symptoms include high fever, night terror, sore throat, severe cough, or vivid hallucinations. The middle level symptoms include blackened necrotic lesions, coughing blood, tissue death in limbs, and weakness. As for the late symptoms, they are paranoia, delirium, organ failure, blood from the eyes, mouth, and other orifices. Overall, an infected person can at most last a week or a maximum of 9 days before death. "

" After our research and going through the statistics, only 1 in 10 people might survive after being infected by the Moroi’s Fiend. "

Vijay’s brows furrowed a little since this number was a little higher than he expected, but still, he eventually relaxed, " You were saying that a concoction had been discovered? "

Dr Vinay paused briefly and nodded with a smile, " In fact, Her Highness Tanvika is the primary contributor to this concoction, your majesty. Her Highness is simply brilliant."

" She discovered that although penicillin was not fully effective against the germ, she proposed to add auxiliary ayurvedic herbs to the mix to enhance the effects, and after the research of the whole research laboratory and Her Highness’ keen vision, we were able to come up with a concoction with penicillin as the base, shilajit, ashwagandha, and giloy as the stabilisers and absorption enhancers, and finally tulsi, turmeric, and liquorice as immune support herbs."

" That is not all, your majesty. Additionally, she came up with a camphor-based steam inhalation method, Herbal-smoke fumigation and other measures to sterilise the air and protect oneself around the infected patients, so that medical personnel, military personnel, and the police would be less at risk of being infected. "

Hearing this, Vijay’s eyes brightened and he leaned forward. This is one of the core reasons why people are getting afraid to go to the frontline of the fight against the disease. Although the majority of the medical, military, and police personnel are indeed going to the frontline, around 75 or even 80% of them, it is indeed true that they were going ill-prepared, and their mortality rate is not lower than any actual battle against an adversary of a similar strength.

Anything that helps protect these brave people is, of course, a welcome change.

" So how safe are the people at the frontline? Will they be able to avoid the spread altogether? "Vijay felt like he was asking for too much, but one could always hope.

Vinay shook his head, " It’s a much more complicated process than that, your majesty. "

" Without the concoction being ingested by the infected patient, using the camphor-based steam breathing and herbal smoke fumigation method alone, for the infected people in the tents and isolated camps, the risk of infection is barely reduced by 20% or less."

" But however, as long as the infected person takes the concoction, and the healthy person coming in close contact with the infected person follows all the instructions, like not to have body contact, not to get too close, and other things, while using the herbal smoke fumigation to sterilise the air, the chances of infection go down drastically, by nearly 40% or more."

" That’s still very good," Vijay was impressed, and he couldn’t help but be taken aback by the capabilities of his daughter. ’ Will she end up becoming the first person in his family to get the Dharma Award? Wait, come to think of it, Vedanth might also be nominated for the Dharma Award in mechanics.’ ’ Will both my younger son and daughter be Dharma laureates?’ The thought couldn’t help but make him internally very pleased.

Coming back to his senses, he continued to enquire,

" So basically, giving the concoction to the ones who are infected and taking some measures, the people on the frontline have increased in security, but what about the people who are infected themselves? Will their chances of recovery increase?"

Vinay nodded, " This is not as simple as well, your majesty, because it depends on the immune system of the individual and at what stage the disease is at."

" If the person infected is an older man or a woman, the chances of recovery are slim to none; the same goes for a very young child. But if it is a teenager or a healthy adult, then the chances of recovery go up drastically."

" The odds of survival can increase from one in every ten people to three in every ten people."

" Also, although we cannot measure this scientifically, through observations we were able to determine that the chances of the germs spreading from the infected has reduced by a little, although not a lot, since this germ seems to be blessed with the ability to spread despite the harsh conditions due to its naturally robust spore-like body and moderate mutation to resist unusual weathers. It still shows a huge improvement at a large scale."

Vijay quickly got the gist of it: " Quickly produce a mass production scheme for the concoction as well as develop an oil or powder-like material for herbal smoke fumigation, so that the oil or powder could be directly poured onto the burning coal for fast working."

" I will mobilise the medical companies in the empire to produce these things at the fastest speed." Vijay declared as he inwardly noted to send an order to Bhaskaracharya to nationalise Venkatapathy Scientific as well. Although most of it cannot be nationalised, since factories dedicated to medical equipment are only a few, he will still show his attitude to the empire.

Vinay agreed and retreated.

---

The very day Vijay initiated the nationalisation of medical manufacturing companies,

Orders went to various states using the arkha dristhi Communication Channel, which is now completely under the centralised command of the emperor, and the government operated at full military efficiency now that there was no other voice apart from the voice of the emperor to consider.

Bhupathi, as soon as getting the orders from the Logistics Department of the military, did not hesitate at all and directly nationalised his medical company, Bhupathi Pharma, along with his medical equipment manufacturing company, Bhupathi Precision Machinery, and signed up to work in the military logistics department as the director of Bhupathi Pharma and nominated his daughter to take over as the director of Bhupathi Precision Machinery.

Bhupathi is not a fool. He knew that there would be massive benefits from nationalising his company. Although on paper he would completely lose control over his company and he would have to take orders from the higher-ups in the military logistics department, it would also mean that, being the largest medicine manufacturing company in the empire, he would, by default, receive the priority resource allocation when his company had to be expanded. And although the news about the plague had been kept very well from the common people of the empire to stop them from panicking, being one of the richest people in the empire, he had his information channels, and he knew what was happening in Khalsa Nagari.

Bhupathi was scared of the plague, but he was also excited about the profits that could be made.

Not to mention, he saw the profits in the long term as well. So when his daughter cluelessly asked why he had to agree to nationalise all his factories when the government clearly gave an option to nationalise only 50%, Bhupathi looked at his daughter seriously and responded,

" To the frontline alone, our factory has to be expanded by 30 to 40% to meet the demand, now think about how many times it has to be expanded to provide medicines for the allies in the Middle East. Even though we suffered so much, will these people with poorer medical technology have it easy? "

" Also, think about the European market, this is where the plague actually originated from. Think how much demand these Eastern European and Central European countries have for the medicine."

" Nationalising the company is the best opportunity to become the largest medical company in the world, bar none. "

His daughter, Pavitra Ganga Bhupathi, nodded in understanding.

In fact, Bhupathi was not the only one who had such ideas; other medium-scale medical companies also had similar thoughts in their mind.