中国正试图阻止一种致命的新病毒的传播

中国正试图阻止一种致命的新病毒的传播

Governments around the world have always struggled to stop the spread of disease, from the deadly swine flu which struck the globe in 2009. to ongoing attempts to rein in Ebola in West Africa.

世界各国政府一直在努力阻止疾病的传播，从2009年席卷全球的致命的猪流感到西非正在进行的遏制埃博拉的努力。

No health authority has ever tackled the challenge currently faced by China, however, as the country grapples with a new coronavirus just as hundreds of millions prepare to travel during the Lunar New Year period -- the largest annual human migration on Earth.

然而，中国目前面临的挑战还没有一个卫生部门能够应对。中国正在应对一种新型冠状病毒，而与此同时，数以亿计的人正准备在农历新年期间出行——这是地球上规模最大的年度人类迁徙。

During the Lunar holiday, people from across the country will cram themselves into homebound trains, buses and planes for family reunions. Others will take advantage of the time off to holiday overseas. Last year, close to 7 million Chinese tourists traveled abroad for Lunar New Year, according to state media.

春节期间，全国各地的人们将挤上返乡的火车、巴士和飞机，与家人团聚。其他人则会利用这段时间去海外度假。据官方媒体报道，去年春节期间，近700万中国游客出国旅游。

The holiday -- the most important in the Chinese calendar -- comes at the worst possible time for health authorities racing to contain the outbreak which has put the rest of Asia on alert.

春节是中国农历中最重要的节日，对于急于控制疫情的卫生部门来说，这可能是最糟糕的时机。

The virus, which was first identified in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, is known to have infected close to 300 people and spread to at least three other countries already. On Monday, China's National Health Commission confirmed that the Wuhan coronavirus can be passed from human-to-human and that medical staff had also been infected.

这种病毒最初是在中国中部城市武汉发现的，目前已知已经感染了近300人，并已传播到至少另外三个国家。周一，中国国家卫生健康委员会证实，武汉的冠状病毒可以在人与人之间传播，医护人员也受到了感染。

The disclosure followed news that South Korea had confirmed its first case, making it the third country outside of China to detect the virus. The three cases previously confirmed overseas, two in Thailand and one in Japan, all involved people who had visited Wuhan.

此前有消息称，韩国已确诊首例甲型h1n1流感病例，使其成为中国以外第三个发现该病毒的国家。先前在海外确诊的3例，2例在泰国，1例在日本，均涉及曾到过武汉的人。

"One of the consequences of a more connected world is that outbreaks have the potential to spread internationally much more rapidly than was the case 50 years ago," said Mike Turner, director of science at the Wellcome Trust, a UK-based global health charity.

总部位于英国的全球卫生慈善机构惠康基金会的科学主任迈克•特纳表示:“世界联系更加紧密的后果之一是，与50年前相比，疫情有可能以更快的速度在国际上传播。”

More cases have also been reported within China, evidence that the outbreak has spread well beyond Wuhan, creating a risk of unpredictable further infection.

中国境内也报告了更多病例，这表明疫情已经蔓延到武汉以外的地方，造成了无法预测的进一步感染的风险。

As of Tuesday morning, five cases have been confirmed in Beijing, two in Shanghai, and 14 in the southern province of Guangdong -- all hundreds of miles from Wuhan. Additional suspected cases have been reported across the country, from eastern Shandong province to Sichuan province in the southwest.

截至周二上午，北京已确诊5例，上海确诊2例，广东省确诊14例，均距武汉数百英里。从东部的山东省到西南部的四川省，全国各地都报告了疑似病例。

Chinese scientists on January 8 identified the pathogen as a new strain of coronavirus, the same family as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). In 2002 and 2003. SARS infected more than 8.000 people and killed 774 in a pandemic that ripped through Asia, spreading as far as Canada.

1月8日，中国科学家确认该病原体为一种新型冠状病毒，与SARS同属一个科。在2002年和2003年，SARS感染了8000多人，导致774人死亡。

During a news conference Monday, Zhong Nanshan, a Chinese government-appointed expert who helped discover the SARS coronavirus, said the infectiousness of the new Wuhan coronavirus was not as strong as SARS, but that the disease was "climbing" and suggested that the "death rate at the moment is not so representative." Since December, four people infected with the Wuhan coronavirus have died.

在星期一的新闻发布会上，中国政府指定的帮助发现非典型肺炎冠状病毒的专家钟南山说，新的武汉冠状病毒的传染性没有非典那么强，但疾病正在“攀升”，并暗示“目前的死亡率没有那么有代表性”。自去年12月以来，已有四名感染武汉冠状病毒的人死亡。

Uncertainties about the Wuhan coronavirus -- including its unidentified source -- have prompted fears there may be more people infected than currently reported.

关于武汉冠状病毒的不确定性(包括其来源不明)引发了人们对感染人数可能比目前报道的更多的担忧。