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“Already? Let me see.”
Adrian smiled and took the report from him.
Dr.
Hart was beaming.
There was only one way to describe the live-trial data.
Perfect.
It gave him real confidence in the next step: human trials.
“The data look excellent,” Adrian said after reading through the report carefully.
“Prepare for clinical testing.”
“Excellent, Mr. Cross. When can the volunteers be ready? I will run another full check on my side.”
Dr.
Hart could barely contain himself.
He was about to witness HIV/AIDS being conquered.
For a man who had spent his life in biological science, that was a privilege few researchers would ever experience.
“Don’t worry about that,” Adrian said.
“I’ll send out the invitations soon. We can begin within three days at most.”
After Dr.
Hart left, Adrian ordered the Red Queen to send the invitations.
Over the past few days, the Red Queen had sorted and classified most of the useful information available online.
With that much data, finding the right candidates was simple.
HIV was generally transmitted through three routes: sexual contact, blood exposure, and mother-to-child transmission.
Adrian excluded cases tied to sexual contact.
Everyone had to bear the consequences of their own behavior.
Those people could wait and buy the treatment at full price later.
The twenty volunteers were mostly people infected through blood exposure, including blood donation, transfusion, and medical procedures.
Fifteen came from that category.
The remaining five were children infected through mother-to-child transmission.
One of the volunteers was Lena Price, a case that had drawn public attention three years earlier.
At five years old, Lena had contracted HIV after receiving a transfusion during surgery, plunging her family into hardship.
For them, it had been a disaster out of nowhere.
Since then, her family had gone deep into debt trying to keep her alive.
The children she once played with avoided her as if she carried a curse.
Only donations from sympathetic strangers had allowed her treatment to continue this long.
Most of the chosen volunteers had been covered by the media before and had drawn public attention.
Once they were cured, the result would be much harder to question.
For Umbrella and for the volunteers, it was mutually beneficial.
Three days later, in a conference room at New Harbor University Affiliated Hospital, twenty volunteers and their families gathered from across the country, each holding a consent agreement.
The group included men and women, old and young, early-stage patients and late-stage patients alike.
The agreement was straightforward.
They were volunteering for the trial and accepting the possible risks.
“Read the agreement carefully,” Adrian said, scanning the room.
“If there are no objections, the volunteers and their family representatives can sign in front of a notary.”
Whether they were patients or relatives, every person in the room looked worn down by HIV/AIDS.
For many of them, this trial was already their last hope.
“Mr.
Cross,” one patient asked, “what are the odds this drug can cure us?”
“If I say one hundred percent, you will not believe me,” Adrian said calmly.
“So far, every animal trial has been successful. This is the first human trial. If you are not willing to accept the risk, you may leave.”
There were countless people in the world who wanted to participate in this trial.
The experiment was being conducted in partnership with New Harbor University Affiliated Hospital.
After signing, the volunteers were taken to medical rooms, injected with the treatment, and kept under observation.
“Your name is Lena, right? Don’t worry. It will only hurt a little.”
In the medical room, Adrian smiled gently at the little girl in front of him.
Years of illness had left the eight-year-old painfully thin and weak.
A nurse soon administered the treatment.
Whatever Lena had endured over the years, it had taken away the ordinary fear children had of needles.
She did not cry or struggle.
“If you feel anything unusual, tell the doctors immediately,” Adrian said after the injection was complete.
He had absolute confidence in the drug.
One after another, all twenty volunteers received the treatment.
New Harbor University Affiliated Hospital was not far from Adrian’s city residence.
He arrived early the next morning.
The drug had clearly begun to work.
The volunteers could feel their bodies improving.
At the same time, media outlets from around the world swarmed toward the hospital.
No one had expected Adrian’s technology to enter human trials this quickly.
On the third day, the early-stage patients had almost fully recovered.
On the fourth day, more than half of the viral load in the late-stage patients had disappeared.
On the fifth day, no HIV could be found in any of the twenty volunteers.
On the sixth day, with no HIV left to consume, the A1 Virus died off inside all twenty patients.
HIV/AIDS, one of the world’s most feared diseases, had been successfully conquered.
At New Harbor University Affiliated Hospital, the twenty volunteers were surrounded by countless reporters as the good news was announced to the world.
By then, Adrian had already returned to Umbrella.
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