Chapter 139 Measles Epidemic
Time passes day by day.

With the construction of a large number of earthen blast furnaces for smelting iron and steel in and outside the city, thick black smoke would be emitted from the blast furnaces every day, whether it was day or night. When walking on the street, the air in the capital was filled with the smell of fireworks.

New slogans have also been put up on the walls and telephone poles.

Every day, the loudspeakers broadcast some exciting achievements, whether true or false.

With the launch of the large-scale MTR project, this trend has gradually spread to multiple departments such as electricity, coal, transportation, culture and education, and all departments have set off a trend of "everyone participating in the project".

A situation of "one horse taking the lead, thousands of horses galloping" has been formed.

Even in the Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine, some people are beginning to get restless and want to launch a "satellite".

Although in the end it was suppressed by President Lu and several vice presidents.

But Wang Mengde's heart was full of worries.

This matter can be suppressed once or twice temporarily, but when the national situation reaches its peak, it will no longer be able to be suppressed.

At the same time, his research over the past two months had hit a bottleneck, and he rejected several prescriptions in the end.

It’s not that these prescriptions are ineffective, but that the effects do not meet his expectations, or there are other serious side effects.

Soon, it was early November.

It's that time of year again when we store Chinese cabbage.

On this day, Wang Mengde specially asked for a day of "cabbage leave" from his unit, and went to the Nanluoguxiang vegetable store with all the neighbors in the yard to transport cabbages.

During the 'winter storage' days, all units turn a blind eye and allow employees to take leave.

This concerns the issue of food for a family during several months of winter, and no one dares to stop it.

"Shazhu, how many kilograms of cabbage are you going to store this year?"

On the way to the vegetable store, Wang Mengde pushed his bicycle and chatted with Sha Zhu.

There were two frames on the front bar of the bicycle and two sacks on the back seat. Wang Hao and he had the same equipment.

"In our family, there are only two of us, Yu Shui and I. If we save 400 kilograms, it will be enough to get through the winter.

Unlike you, who have a large family, even if you go to aid Korea and defend the country, each person must have at least 100 to 200 kilograms of cabbage, which requires nearly 1,000 kilograms of cabbage."

Sha Zhu pushed a flatbed cart and said with a smile.

He also needed to help the deaf old lady buy 200 kilograms of cabbage today, so he borrowed a flatbed truck early.

"Yes, I wasn't at home last year, so we didn't have enough food. We only had pickles for the last ten days or so. This year, we have to prepare more."

Wang Mengde said.

Last year he went to the south, and Ran Xiaomei thought about saving some money, so she bought 300 kilograms less than the previous year. Unexpectedly, it was cloudy for several days after the Chinese New Year, and she and He Shengnan were reluctant to eat the good ones, so some of the cabbages were left over.

The two were chatting and when they were about to reach the Nanluoguxiang vegetable restaurant, Xu Damao came up on a bicycle with Lou Xiaoe behind them.

Originally, Lou Xiao'e didn't want to come here. When she was at her parents' home, she had never done such rough work.

It was Xu Damao who, in order to show off his wife in front of the neighbors, coaxed and deceived her, and promised not to let her work, before she reluctantly went out.

"Brother Mengde."

"Brother Mengde."

Seeing the two people in front of him greeting him, Wang Mengde felt emotional. In the original drama, some of the main characters in the courtyard have already gathered together.

In October, Xu Damao finally married Lou Xiao'e.

For some unknown reason, perhaps because they didn't want to be too high-profile, the Lou family simply set up two or three tables for their daughter's wedding, and all the guests were relatives and friends.

No other outsiders will be accepted or entertained.

That day, everyone in the Xu family was grinning from ear to ear, especially Xu Fugui, who was so happy that he got drunk on the spot. If it weren't for Aunt Xu who knew his drinking habit and helped him back into the house in time.

I'm afraid that Lao Xu will start singing "Serfs' Rise Up and Sing" at the dinner table.

Xu Damao was also very excited. Although Lou Xiao'e's appearance was not as good as He Shengnan and Qin Huairu in the hospital, her appearance was considered to be above average.

Coupled with his status as a lady from a wealthy family, he was intoxicated by the wine without even realizing it.

Regarding the marriage between the Xu and Lou families, most people in the courtyard appeared to be congratulating them, but in reality they were naturally jealous.

Even the young people in the entire alley were eager to treat him with kindness.

This Lou Xiao'e is not bad looking. Although her identity is Z Benjia, according to the information intentionally revealed by Xu Damao, the Lou family is considered to be red. It is said that before liberation, they also made bets with this side and secretly provided financial support.

After liberation, it cooperated with the state in carrying out public-private partnerships and took the initiative to hand over the management rights of the steel mill.

With these conditions, they actually found a person with a very awkward face, which made everyone angry and helpless.

Especially Shazhu, he was extremely depressed.

"Humph, a flower stuck in cow dung."

Seeing Xu Damao and Lou Xiao'e following each other's lead, Sha Zhu couldn't help but make a sarcastic remark.

"Silly Zhu, I won't argue with you, you are just jealous of me."

Xu Damao said cheerfully, then turned to his wife and said, "Xiao'e, next time you see Sha Zhu, don't pay attention to him. He is not a good person."

"Da Mao, I understand."

Lou Xiao'e said while standing behind Xu Damao.

After saying that, he gave Sha Zhu a cold look, which made Sha Zhu even more indignant.

He felt that even Xu Damao could marry such a good wife, but he had failed after several blind dates. God was really unfair.

Arrived at the door of the vegetable store.

I saw a bustling crowd, like ants moving house, carrying piles of cabbages several meters high back home.

Every household stores as much as possible because there are government subsidies for buying now.

Even though the price of each grade of cabbage has increased by 5 cents to 1 cent per catty this year compared to last year, it can't stop everyone's enthusiasm.

It is said that last year the country invested a total of 20 to 30 million yuan to subsidize winter storage of cabbage.

This year, the "institute" studied the issue of price increase until midnight. After approval, the "autumn vegetable command center" issued the final price to various vegetable stores and sales outlets in the early morning.

Then we explained the reason for the price increase to the public in the Beijing Daily and asked for everyone's understanding.

In this day and age, the country really cares about issues concerning people's livelihood.

After the cabbages were finally transported home, they were all spread out at the door to dry.

Wang Mengde saw that it was still early, so he hurried out.

He rode his bicycle and rode a long circle. It was almost noon when he finally came back, holding the handlebars with one hand and carrying a cloth bag with the other. The bag contained dozens of eggs.

Ever since He Shengnan became pregnant, Wang Mengde took out some nutritional supplements from the space every few days, especially eggs, to ensure that his wife could eat at least two every day.

But this year, each household can only buy one kilogram per month. Even if the Wang family has separated in advance, they can only buy two kilograms, which is about twenty kilograms in total.

Moreover, communes and canteens had begun to be established in rural areas in the previous two months. The chickens raised by my grandparents had also become collectively owned, and the eggs they laid naturally could not be taken to the city.

Twenty eggs a month, He Shengnan alone can only get less than one a day. In addition, her two sons and two younger brothers are growing up and need eggs to supplement their nutrition.

So he began to secretly take things home.

The first time, Wang Hao and Ran Xiaomei asked about the source, but he made up an excuse to fool them.

After that, I never asked again.

They just carefully told Wang Yuanchao and Wang Weiguo not to talk nonsense outside.

Arrived at home.

Ran Xiaomei was preparing lunch while Wang Hao was sitting in the living room reading a newspaper. His two sons, wearing thick clothes, were playing circle games around the dining table.

Seeing the cloth bag in his hand, Ran Xiaomei asked with some concern: "Meng De, you always bring back so much, will there be any problem?"

"Mom, don't worry, everything will be fine."

Wang Mengde carefully placed the eggs in the cupboard and comforted her softly.

He spent more than 20 credit points from his space to buy these 30 eggs, and they were specially bought free-range eggs.

The size and weight are similar to those of this era, with about ten pieces per pound.

"That's fine."

After hearing his words, Ran Xiaomei's expression eased a little. She then reached out to take the two eggs, washed them, and put them in the rice porridge pot to cook them together for her two grandsons.

After lunch.

After coaxing his two sons to sleep, Wang Mengde leaned on the bed, squinted his eyes and dozed off, preparing to take this opportunity to have a good rest.

During this period, in order to do research, in addition to working at the unit every day, he would read and study whenever he had free time at home, including Sundays. He had not had a good rest for a long time.

Unfortunately, before I had rested for half an hour, I could faintly hear the voice of my father-in-law He Guangyao from outside the door.

He got up hurriedly, put on his coat, and went out.

He Guangyao, with an anxious look on his face, was talking to Wang Hao in the ear room.

"Meng De, you're awake. Your father-in-law is here and says Yanan is sick. Go check on him. Let your mother take care of the child."

When Wang Hao saw Wang Mengde coming out, he quickly gave orders.

"What's wrong with Yanan? I'll go back and get my things."

"Yanan had a fever a few days ago, and had a cough and runny nose, which has not subsided. Today, a rash appeared on her body again, and her body temperature feels even higher."

He Guangyao said.

After hearing his narration, Wang Mengde suddenly had a bad feeling in his heart.

He hurriedly took the silver needles and the medicine box, and put seven or eight eggs in the box. Then he pushed his bicycle out of the yard and rode towards Caochang Hutong with his father-in-law.

When he arrived at the He family and entered the house, he went straight to treating his sister-in-law without any greetings.

When we learned that He Yanan had a fever for three or four days, accompanied by symptoms such as cough, runny nose, tears, and congestion in the throat, and that red rashes began to appear around her ears and neck today and gradually spread downwards.

This is undoubtedly measles.

Wang Mengde knew clearly that measles was a very serious epidemic in this era.

There is no relevant vaccine developed in China yet. In addition, measles is highly contagious. If unvaccinated people have close contact with measles patients, 10 out of 9 people will be infected with measles.

Children are particularly prone to the disease.

When she saw that her brother-in-law looked bad, He Yanan raised her head with an effort and pursed her lips and said, "Brother-in-law, is my illness serious?"

"Yanan, your illness is not serious.

I'll prescribe some medicine for you later, and you'll get better soon. By the way, I've also brought you a few eggs, which you can cook or make brown sugar poached eggs."

Wang Mengde hurriedly comforted him.

"Yeah, I have eggs to eat, thank you brother-in-law."

He Yanan said happily when she heard that her brother-in-law brought her some eggs to eat.

Ever since her sister became pregnant, Zhou Xiaoyan has been saving up one pound of eggs from their family every month, preparing to save more and send them to Nanluoguxiang.

"Meng De, why did you bring eggs? Shengnan is newly pregnant and needs to supplement nutrition. Take the eggs back later. Oh, I have saved about 20 eggs at home. Take them all."

Zhou Xiaoyan listened to the conversation between the two people and then spoke hurriedly.

"Mom, there are plenty at home. I have a patient who is the leader of the Beijing Subsidiary Food Company. They have internal bargaining for eggs. You can buy dozens of eggs every month without a ticket."

Wang Mengde explained in a low voice.

This leader is not fabricated, he is indeed one of his patients.

But I don’t sell him dozens of eggs every month. I can only sell him one and a half kilograms of eggs without a ticket.

"Hey, Meng De, you know this kind of leader."

He Guangyao said in surprise.

"Dad, my teacher and I were seeing patients at Guang'anmen Hospital. We encountered difficult and complicated cases. Many of them were leaders from various departments. They were all my patients. I cured them and they were all very grateful to me.

When Shengwen graduates from junior high school next year, just tell me which department you want to work for and I will arrange a job for you directly."

Wang Mengde said with a smile.

As his medical skills and fame improved, his network of contacts also expanded. This was just a small matter of saying hello.

After chatting for a few sentences, he began to think about what prescription to use to treat his sister-in-law.

After thinking for a while, Wang Mengde instructed: "Mom, there are green onions at home, find two green onion roots with whiskers, wash them clean, and I will mix some Chinese medicinal materials and boil water for Yanan to drink.

By the way, you have brown sugar at home, right? When it’s almost done, add a little brown sugar to it, it will have a better effect.”

As he said this, he took out a Chinese medicinal herb from the medicine box and handed it to Zhou Xiaoyan.

"Okay, there are plenty of onions at home. I will go and boil the medicine now."

Zhou Xiaoyan was very convinced of her son-in-law's medical skills. She took the Chinese medicinal materials, hurried out of the room, and went to her neighbor's house to borrow a medicine pot.

After He Yanan finished drinking the medicine, she showed obvious improvement after a while.

Wang Mengde finally felt relieved. He divided the herbs into several portions, asked his mother-in-law to give the medicine to his sister-in-law on time and in the right dosage, and then left.

Instead of going home directly, he went to the epidemic prevention station.

In 1950, the capital city promulgated the "Provisional Measures for the Prevention and Treatment of Infectious Diseases in Beijing", which designated 14 diseases including plague, cholera, and measles as statutory infectious diseases.

Detailed regulations have been made for epidemic reporting, visit investigation, isolation and disinfection, and vaccination.

At the same time, the Beijing City Health and Epidemic Prevention Station was established in 1953, and epidemic prevention stations were successively established in various districts and counties.

Therefore, he must report the measles epidemic situation in a timely manner.

After entering the epidemic prevention station and explaining his identity, a leader immediately welcomed him warmly.

(End of this chapter)