Chapter 198: Blacklight Virus
Three hours later, when the four vehicles had returned to Eco Science City, there was already a custom set up by the city entrance.
A large steel gate was erected in the middle of the road. Several B.S.S. members clad in protective suits and armed with rifles posed as security by the entrance.
“Oh, f***... Come on guys, you guys think this is Resident Evil?”
When the vehicles stopped by the custom, one of the customs security went up to the people in the Jeep. “That’s a bit overkill, yeah?”
Unfortunately, his colleagues inside the Jeep did not provide him any response.
“We took a trip to a pandemic red zone.”
Herbert stepped off the ambulance to break up the awkward interaction. He handed a folder to the other person and turned around to look at the ambulance they came back in.
That was when he immediately understood the comments made.
The ambulance originally painted in white was covered in numerous b.l.o.o.d.y handprints. It came to Herbert how desperate the villagers must have felt then when he looked at these marks they left behind.
“Sigh...”
Herbert sighed silently. After the security went through the doc.u.ment and made sure there was no discrepancy, he informed, “The vehicle won’t be able to enter. You guys can head in first, there’ll be a crew escorting you.”
“Alright.”
Herbert nodded. The crew got out and pushed the isolation cabin into the negative pressure tent for disinfection.
It was only after they had been thoroughly disinfected that they were granted entry into Eco Science City.
What followed after was another set of complicated procedures. It took two to three hours before the four infected were finally sent to the research center.
Their blood samples were sent into the level-4 biosafety lab which had never been officially put to use ever since its establishment.
The level-4 biosafety lab was otherwise known as the international standard BSL-4 laboratory. It was a laboratory specifically designed to study some of the most hazardous viruses in the world. Laboratories of this variation were extremely rare in the Earth Federation. There were only sixty-eight such established laboratories registered so far.
The current laboratory belonging to Chen Chen was the only privatized BSL-4 laboratory in the world.
At the current moment in the laboratory, Bernhard, Evans, and several other top microbiologists were gathered. They protected themselves in closed isolation suits. The entire experiment would be conducted on a negative pressure clean bench.
“The blood lapping agent of the infected is complete, where’s the human kidney cell dish?”
“Over here.”
“Alright, I’ve dripped the lapping agent. Let’s see what kind of virus we’re dealing with now.”
The atmosphere inside the BSL-4 laboratory was relatively relaxed. Bernhard had his a.s.sistants test the blood samples while he and Evans tried another method of processing the samples.
Half an hour later, they put the human kidney cell dish under the electron microscope for closer observation. The display monitor revealed the true nature of the virus.
The audience held in a breath of cold air upon seeing the result.
As seen on the display, the human kidney cell was completely destroyed by the attacking virus. The cell membrane was utterly shattered and the organelle became barely recognizable. Amid the broken cell remains was a ma.s.s of densely packed together thread-formed substance...
“As suspected, it’s filovirus.”
Evans sighed upon noting this. “It’s pretty much confirmed now. Up till now, there have only been two variants of filovirus discovered in the Earth Federation. These two viruses are pathogens categorized in the highest biosafety level.
“We will still need to refer to the a.s.sistants to get a proper overview.”
Bernhard made a waving gesture as he turned to another group occupied with their task. “Joseph, any findings from the serum test on your end?”
“The test result is ready.”
One of the a.s.sistants quickly approached them and handed the report into the hands of Bernhard. “Professor, the virus in this outbreak presented a cross-antibody reaction with the Zaire subtype. It’s antibody-antigen reaction tested positive.”
“Impossible!”
Evans immediately declared upon hearing the report, “This can’t be Zaire!
“If it were the Zaire subtype Ebola virus, things would be much easier.”
Bernhard was also slightly taken aback by the result, then became pensive at the findings. “Even though the fatality rate of Zaire subtype Ebola reaches as high as ninety percent, it only spreads through bodily fluids. It should be easy to stun its spread.
“That’s why this virus cannot possibly be Zaire. It’s a new subtype that holds close similarity with the Zaire subtype Ebola virus.”
Evans nodded. “Just like the Reston subtype Bola virus.”
There was a sense of sorrow among them upon arriving at this conclusion.
It was already known that all of the different subtypes of Ebola displayed varying degrees of infectivity and symptoms. Among them, the Zaire subtype boasted a fatality rate of up to ninety percent while the Sudan subtype’s fatality was fifty percent. Both of these subtypes were transmitted via liquid, which meant they were not highly infectious.
The most infectious of the bunch was a subtype known as Reston.
Reston was a variant of Ebola that could spread through the air. It was almost completely identical to the Zaire virus but fortunately, this virus only proved to be lethal on monkeys and was largely harmless against humans.
The problem was that upon the initial discovery of the Reston subtype, many people became concerned – what if one day the Reston subtype Ebola went through mutation and became effective against humans? What happened then?
Now, it may appear that the very thing that they had feared was unraveling...
“Professor, we’ve done a complete glycoprotein gene sequence a.n.a.lysis of the isolated virus and found that 98.9% of the nucleotides of this virus are the same as the ones found in Reston virus.”
“Excellent, this pretty much confirms it. This is a mutated variant of the Reston subtype Ebola virus.”
The look on Bernhard’s face became even more serious as he inspected the report in his hand. “This means that this is an airborne Ebola virus.
“You guys continue decoding its genetic scheme, I’ll send the initial report to the boss first.”
Evans spoke, “Right, could everyone brainstorm a name for the virus so we can submit it to WHO? As the first to discover this new virus, we have the right to name it.”
They exchanged confused glances at one another.
“Why not Namibia subtype Ebola virus?” one of the a.s.sistants spoke up.
“No, we’re the first ones to discover the new virus. Why let Namibia steal the glory?” Another a.s.sistant shot it down.
“How about Bernhard-Evans subtype?” A third a.s.sistant suggested.
“That won’t do. Chen Chen subtype Ebola then...” Evans quickly waved away the suggestion.
“Alright, spare me the modesty, let’s just name it after our company.”
Bernhard smacked the table and declared, “Blacklight virus, that’s a good name. I’m sure the boss will be pleased.”
“That’s true.”
They all nodded in agreement.
With that, the new virus was officially named.