He grinned
weakly. "Hi, Doc. I guess we're making a lot of trouble, ain't we?"
Chris gave Doc no chance to answer. "Just as I thought. Measles! Plain
old-fashioned measles."
"Figured so," the sick man said. "Like my brother back on Earth."
The others looked doubtful, but Doc reassured them. Chris should know;
she'd worked in a swanky hospital where the patients were mostly
Earth-normal. Measles was one of the diseases which was foiled by the
metabolism switch. Well, at least they wouldn't have to be quarantined
here.
Chris finished treating the family with impersonal efficiency,
discussing the symptoms loudly with Harkness. "It's a good thing it
isn't serious!"
"No," Harkness answered bitterly. "Not serious. It's only killed five
children and three adults so far!"
"It would, here," Doc agreed unhappily. He led Chris out of the room on
the pretext of washing his hands. "It's serious enough to force us to
abandon the whole idea of going back to Earth-normal. Measles today,
smallpox, tuberculosis, scarlet fever and everything else tomorrow.
These people have lived Mars-normal so long their natural immunity has
been destroyed. On Earth where the disease was everywhere, kids used to
pick up some immunity with constant exposure, even without what might be
called a case of the disease. Here, the blood has no reason to build
antibodies.
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