Virus - Prisoners of the Nature

Chapter 7

Next day, Neil went inside the Gujarat Medical College and Hospital to do his job. The smell of Iodoform, phenols, and other disinfectants covered his nose, but he didn't flinch. He didn't even noticed. He eventually reached to the fourth floor. On this floor, there were four wards of the medicine department. He went into the first ward to his office. Neil M. Patel - Associate Professor M.D. (medicine) were the words written on the nameplate attached to wall, just above the door to his office. 

His office, covered in a light yellow color, had three chairs and one wooden-table. Table divided this room into two uneven sides. One side is for him. Other side was for anyone who came to meet him. There was a window opposite to the door. One black rotating sofa chair is near the window on one side of the table. And two simple chairs are on the other side of the table.

He opened the window, took a breath of fresh air, put his swollen bag on the table between the thousand-and-paged books on one side and letterheads on the other side. Wrinkled covers of books with blacked pages and highlighted lines suggested the condition of these overused books.

A small square temple adhered itself to a wall. An unblemished and polished photo of Lord Vishnu sat inside this temple.

Lord Vishnu is one of the Trimurti. The Trimurti is the triple deity of supreme divinity in Hinduism in which cosmic functions of creation, maintenance, and destruction are personified as a triad of deities. This triad includes Brahma the creator, Vishnu the preserver, and Shiva the destroyer. Vishnu suits a doctor who tries to preserve life created by Brahma.

Two burned-out candle stood in front of this photo. Neil took these candles and put in a drawer in his table. Then he took one new candle, put it in front of photo and lit it. He held his hands in Namaste, closed his eyes, and prayed in Sanskrit language.

He finished his praying, and sat on his sofa chair filling the forms as Aman opened the door.

"I will be right there." Neil said to him. He went to the ward to take his rounds. Each ward has 30 beds. Entire ward was full. He checked every patient one by one, a patient with diabetic ulcer, a patient with food poisoning, and so on...

He completed his round and asked to Aman, "What's the status of Dev and Raman's wife?"

"They are currently in the isolation ward on bed numbers 13 and 14. They both had two seizures, but now they are stable." Aman replied.

Morning became evening. Aman's shift ended. He went to Neil's office to inform him. As he opened the door, he saw Neil burning another candle in front of Lord Vishnu. After he completed another prayer, Aman said, "My shift is over. Aakash is coming for his shift."

"Where's he? He's 5 minutes late. And tell him to go check on Dev and Raman's wife. We can never be too careful." Neil told him.

"Yes. Sir." He closed the door and went outside the hospitals on his way to his room. He met Aakash.

Every medical college has limited numbers of seats in each department during the admission process. Medicine department had four seats. So during one year, maximum four students can get admission as resident. Aman was one of the four students in the final year. Other three are Aakash, Niral and Sweta.

Aakash climbed down the stairs with closed eyes. Chains in his swollen bag where open risking the documents to fall at anytime. But he didn't care a bit. His slow gait with headphones in his ear gave him joy, even though he was 5 minutes. If Aman were 5 minutes late, then he would be running right now but not Aakash.

"Neil sir told you to examine two patients who are in the isolation ward. Bed number 13 and 14. I guess he still wants you to practice on your examination skills." Aman informed him.

"One mistake. Last time I made one mistake and now he thinks I don't know how to examine patients. I mean we are in the final year. Anyway. What do this patient have?" Aakash asked him.

"I don't know. I mean they have respiratory infections. It's viral. But we can't detect which organism is behind that infection." Aman Said.

"Good luck for 15 hours." Aman laughed as he continued to his room. He opened the door, and his eyes widened in shock. He forgot to tell him to wear a mask.

Aakash was reckless. He didn't care about these precautions. But they are there for a reason. These patients are infectious. If he examines them without a mask, he can get the same infection. He might die.

There are no specific drugs for many viral diseases. If it's a bacterial infection, then you can take anti-biotics. If it's a fungal infection, then you can take anti-fungal drugs. But if it's a viral infection, then it's trouble. There are some antiviral drugs are available. But they are not very effective at killing the viruses. Only treatment in viral infection is symptomatic treatment.

Symptomatic treatment is a type of medical therapy of a disease that only affects its symptoms, not its cause. It means if a person has a fever, you can use anti-pyretics which brings down the fever. If you have pain, then you can use analgesics. If you have kidney failure, then do hemodialysis, which filters the waste products from blood and does the job that kidney normally does. If a person can't breathe, use a ventilator.

But drugs can't effectively kill the viruses present inside the body. And that can lead to continuous infection no matter what medications you gave to the patient.

If he would die due to this, Then it would be Aman's fault. Aman forgot to inform how dangerous this unknown organism is. He grabbed his phone, and called him in a blink of an eye. But Aakash didn't respond. So he closed the door of his room, went outside the hostel, ran inside the hospital, and went to the elevator. He didn't have time for climbing the stairs. The elevator door was closed. A small screen on the side had number 7 written on it with an arrow pointing upwards. This hospital had 10 floors. He didn't have the time to wait for the elevator to go to tenth floor and then come back to the first floor. So he climbed to the medicine ward using stairs.

"I thought your shift is over." Sweta asked him.

"Where's Aakash?" He asked.

"He went to examine the patients in the isolation ward." She replied. Isolation ward occupied the sixth floor.

"Oh. I was too late." He said to himself as he ran to the sixth floor...