担心感染新的冠状病毒吗?在美国，流感是一个更大的威胁

担心感染新的冠状病毒吗?在美国，流感是一个更大的威胁

If you live in the U.S, your risk of contracting the new strain of coronavirus identified in China is exceedingly low.

如果你住在美国，你感染在中国发现的新型冠状病毒的风险非常低。

Severe respiratory virus that threatens lives — the influenza or "flu" virus — is very active in the U.S. right now.

威胁生命的严重呼吸道病毒——流感或“流感”病毒——目前在美国非常活跃。

Already this flu season (which generally begins in the U.S. in October and peaks during winter months), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that more than 15 million people in the U.S. have gotten sick with flu. More than 150.000 Americans have been hospitalized, and more than 8.000 people have died from their infection. And, this isn't even a particularly bad flu year.

美国疾病控制与预防中心(简称CDC)估计，今年的流感季(通常始于美国的10月份，在冬季达到高峰)已经有超过1.500万人感染了流感。超过15万美国人住院治疗，超过8000人死于感染。而且，今年还不是特别严重的流感年。

"Last year we had 34.000 deaths from flu," says epidemiologist Brandon Brown of the University of California, Riverside. On average, the flu is responsible for somewhere between 12.000 and 61.000 deaths each year. "And this is just in the United States," Brown says.

“去年我们有34000人死于流感，”加州大学河滨分校的流行病学家布兰登·布朗说。平均而言，每年死于流感的人数在1.2万到6.1万人之间。“这只是在美国，”布朗说。

A flu shot is your best way to protect against getting the flu, and it's still not too late to be vaccinated this season.

注射流感疫苗是预防流感的最好方法，现在接种流感疫苗还为时不晚。

There's another very effective strategy for fending off the flu virus — one that could also help protect against the novel coronavirus if it were to spread within the U.S, Brown says.

还有一种非常有效的方法来抵御流感病毒——如果这种新型冠状病毒在美国境内传播，这种方法也可以帮助人们抵御这种病毒。布朗说。

His top tip is remarkably simple, effective — and familiar. Ready for this? Wash your hands. You need to lather up and wash for at least 20 seconds to make this work, according to the CDC's tips for proper hand-washing. The time it takes to hum the song "Happy Birthday' twice is about right duration.

他的建议非常简单、有效，也很熟悉。准备好了吗?洗你的手。根据美国疾病控制与预防中心关于正确洗手的建议，你需要用肥皂洗手至少20秒。哼两遍《生日快乐》这首歌所花的时间大约是正确的长度。

"Our hands are one of the main ways we can transmit a virus," Brown says. As a reality check, begin to notice everything you touch in a day. "We shake other people's hands, we touch surfaces, open doors," he notes.

“我们的手是传播病毒的主要途径之一，”布朗说。作为一个现实的检查，开始注意你一天中接触的每件东西。“我们和别人握手，我们触摸物体，开门，”他说。

In addition to inhaling airborne particles from a neighbor's cough or sneeze, touching your hand to a contaminated surface and then to your eyes, nose or mouth is how the virus most often gets inside you.

除了从邻居的咳嗽或打喷嚏中吸入空气中的颗粒外，接触污染表面的手，然后接触眼睛、鼻子或嘴巴是病毒最常进入你体内的方式。

There's still a lot to learn about the new coronavirus, but respiratory illnesses in general — whether the flu, a cold, or a virus that humans haven't encountered before — can spread via little respiratory droplets when an infected person sneezes or coughs.

关于这种新型冠状病毒，我们还有很多需要了解的地方，但一般的呼吸系统疾病——无论是流感、感冒，还是人类以前从未接触过的病毒——都可以在感染者打喷嚏或咳嗽时通过呼吸道飞沫传播。

That's why we teach our kids to cover their coughs, and to sneeze into an elbow. Each of us can help prevent the spread of viruses, and good hygiene habits are key.

这就是为什么我们要教孩子们咳嗽时捂着嘴，对着胳膊肘打喷嚏。我们每个人都可以帮助预防病毒的传播，良好的卫生习惯是关键。

Another important reminder: The CDC recommends a pneumococcal vaccine for children under 2. for adults who are 65 or older, and for people who smoke, as well as for those who have certain medical conditions.

另一个重要的提醒是:美国疾病控制与预防中心建议为2岁以下儿童、65岁以上成年人、吸烟人士以及有某些疾病的人接种肺炎球菌疫苗。

It's not that this vaccine will directly fight the pneumonia caused by influenza or the new coronavirus; the pneumococcal vaccine actually revs the body's defenses against a different microbe — the common bacterium Streptococcus pneumonia – that also causes pneumonia.

并不是说这种疫苗能直接对抗流感引起的肺炎或新型冠状病毒;肺炎球菌疫苗实际上能增强人体对另一种微生物的抵抗力，这种微生物就是常见的肺炎链球菌，它也能引起肺炎。

However, one of the main reasons some people get very sick from flu is that, once infected and weakened by the influenza virus, they are extra vulnerable to getting a secondary infection from bacteria — and often, it's the pneumococcal bacteria.

然而，一些人感染流感的主要原因之一是，一旦感染并被流感病毒削弱，他们更容易受到细菌的二次感染——通常是肺炎球菌。

For an historical perspective: It was actually bacterial pneumonia that caused the most deaths during the 1918 influenza pandemic, according to the National Institutes of Health.

从历史的角度来看:根据美国国立卫生研究院的数据，在1918年流感大流行期间，造成最多死亡的实际上是细菌性肺炎。

By fending off those bacteria, the pneumococcal vaccine can be an important part of a flu defense — and might also help in the defense against the new coronavirus strain.

通过抵御这些细菌，肺炎球菌疫苗可以成为流感防御的重要组成部分，也可能有助于防御新的冠状病毒株。

"We don't know whether this new coronavirus tends to predispose people toward pneumococcal infection, but many respiratory viruses do," explains Marc Lipsitch, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

哈佛大学公共卫生学院传染病流行病学家马克里皮解释说:“我们不知道这种新型冠状病毒是否会使人容易感染肺炎球菌，但许多呼吸道病毒会。”

"It [would be] better to be infected with only coronavirus, rather than the coronavirus and a bacterium at the same time," Lipsitch says.

“最好只感染冠状病毒，而不是同时感染冠状病毒和细菌，”里皮说。

In general, when we get a virus, "the immune system is distracted." It focuses on fighting the virus, and that makes it harder to fend off a bacterial infection. "It's hard [for the immune system] to do both at once," Lipstich explains.

一般来说，当我们感染病毒时，“免疫系统会分散注意力。”它专注于对抗病毒，这使得它更难抵御细菌感染。“(免疫系统)很难同时做到这两件事，”里皮解释说。