Over the receiver, after conveying the message, Captain Neil coughed twice and then suddenly started vomiting heavily.

Gu Ji's hands suddenly stopped, and he hurriedly asked, "Captain Neil, have you been infected too?"

"Uh... I don't know, I just feel a terrible headache, my face feels hot, and my stomach is very uncomfortable, like a cold."

Captain Neil answered truthfully.

The illness has already set in!

This was completely unexpected for him. Theoretically speaking, the cruise ship's control room is strictly regulated, and ordinary people are generally not allowed in. That man in the brown hat never had the chance to get close to the captain, so how did he get infected?

Gu Ji frowned.

There are only two possibilities:

One, the virus source is not the man in the brown hat;

Two, the virus spread into the cruise ship's control room through other means, such as air transmission!

He looked up at the air conditioner vent on the ceiling of the room, his heart growing heavier.

Originally, Gu Ji had Captain Neil turn off the central air conditioning system as a precautionary measure.

Because severe hemorrhagic fever diseases, such as Marburg and Ebola viruses in the filovirus family, or arboviral diseases like dengue fever and Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, mostly do not transmit through the respiratory tract, making it difficult for them to spread through the air like the flu virus.

However, there are exceptions.

For example, epidemic hemorrhagic fever, also known as hantavirus, has been proven to be transmissible through the respiratory tract.

But hantavirus severe fatality rate is only 1% to 5%, mainly damaging the kidneys, far less severe than other hemorrhagic fever diseases, and the corpse of the white-haired elder who died had extremely horrific symptoms; most importantly, hantavirus cannot transmit person-to-person, only through small rodents.

Among the remaining virulent viruses, Marburg virus has reported cases of aerosol infection in experimental animals, but related human infection cases have yet to be proven in the laboratory.

"Captain Neil, have everyone in the control room stay away from you immediately. Medical and cleaning personnel, prioritize disinfecting the control room and engine room, and check all pilots, helmsmen, engineers for fever, quickly!"

Gu Ji's tone was even more urgent than at the moment the virus concentrated outbreak earlier.

Understand this.

If the cruise ship's control and power departments collapse, the ship will become a complete isolate at sea, cut off from the world, and everyone can do nothing but wait to die!

"I am Katsushin Tanamura, the Minister of Health, Labour, and Welfare. Does your Xiangzhou Medical Health Bureau have an emergency response plan for this incident? Can you help me contact your leader?"

Upon hearing that the virus had already infiltrated the control room, the Health, Labour, and Welfare Minister finally couldn't hold back and took the initiative to speak, his voice deep.

It makes sense for a country's top health system leader to demand a direct conversation with Gu Ji's superior.

But the problem is, he doesn't have any superior.

His entire identity is fabricated.

Gu Ji's eyelids half drooped, his mind racing:

"Sorry, we're also only at the initial exploration stage. What we currently know is there are two cases of infection; the first patient is a 41-year-old male with a history of hyperuricemia and hyperlipidemia, already critically ill when family discovered him, he bled to death within 16 hours of hospitalization."

"The second patient is a 38-year-old healthy male, admitted with acute fever, body pain, and red papules on the face and limbs, doctors suspect hemorrhagic fever infection, lab tests show leukopenia and lymphopenia, currently under treatment."

"Through tracking and tracing, we learned both patients had successively been aboard the Platinum Star Cruise Ship, and a virus of unknown type was found in their blood samples, which is being sent to Xia Kingdom's Jiangzhou Virus Research Institute for examination, so Xiangzhou CHP knows no more than I do on site!"

This statement was logically reasoned and carefully deliberated before he said it.

Gu Ji first substantiated his legal authority to investigate the virus by exemplifying cases, which he had observed from infected individuals on the ship, partly true and partly false.

He then highlighted one death and one injury, raising the fatality rate to increase urgency and emphasized the virus is en route with no lab conclusion, and the leaders know nothing either.

Therefore, to save the cruise ship quickly, cooperation with him is the only option.

Indeed.

Katsushin Tanamura stayed silent for a moment, seeming to acknowledge the professionalism of his two verbal reports, "Miss Jian, what do you think of the current situation on the cruise ship?"

"Very grave, 1 dead, 3 critically ill, over 60 mild cases, and close contacts are immeasurable. The ship is densely populated, making control difficult, medical resources extremely limited, and I fear we can't hold on for long. Most importantly,"

At this point, Gu Ji paused for a moment, glanced at Ito Meiyu beside him, and pursed his lips: "I have not yet determined the virus source and specific transmission method. If the virus can spread through the air, then..."

The second half of the sentence went unsaid, but Tanamura Katsushin, being in the health system, understood.

The transmission pathways of infectious diseases include diet, water, air, direct contact, blood, bodily fluids, and so on...

Among them, blood and bodily fluids have certain limitations, diet, water, and direct contact are relatively easy to control, but air transmission is the hardest to prevent. With every breath exhaled entering other people's bodies, cycling back and forth, not to mention droplets caused by coughing and sneezing.

Without timely measures, the pathogen will spread at an exceptionally fast rate, as historical pandemic outbreaks have mostly been respiratory viruses.

This also means that if the virus can indeed be transmitted through the air.

Gu Ji would be completely unable to control it.

"I am currently on my way to the temporary emergency management investigation team, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism is negotiating to redirect the cruise ship to the nearest South Korean Jeju Island Port, the specific situation still needs to await communication with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and South Korea."

Katsushin Tanamura, seemingly in a vehicle, spoke again, his tone more anxious.

Truly deserving of the top seat in the health system.

Recognizing the crux of this public health incident at first glance: personnel control!

The limitations of personnel and supplies on the cruise ship are too great, Gu Ji, even with a keen mind, is just an ordinary person, unable to conjure people and things out of nowhere; only once the ship docks, reaching land, can the government take action, deploying medical personnel and the police military for strong control, thereby extracting the virus for testing and comparison, formulating an effective treatment plan.

"Jeju Island..."

As Gu Ji muttered to himself, a map of the East Asia Sea appeared in his mind.

They had departed from Kagoshima last night, which is at the southwest end of Japan. The next destination was Xiangzhou, so the cruise ship's direction all along was southwest.

And Jeju Island happens to be at South Korea's southwest corner, situated between Japan and Xia Kingdom's territorial waters.

Although it might not be the closest land port to the cruise ship currently, it's definitely a more appropriate choice than returning to Kagoshima or heading straight to Xia Kingdom.

Because.

Aside from being a tourist destination, Jeju Island also has a South Korean Navy base!

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