欧洲研究人员警告说，症状轻微的人会传播冠状病毒

欧洲研究人员警告说，症状轻微的人会传播冠状病毒

People infected with the coronavirus can spread it easily, even if they're not yet experiencing severe symptoms of the disease, according to virologists watching the pandemic unfold in Europe.

据观察欧洲流感大流行的病毒学家说，感染了冠状病毒的人很容易传播这种病毒，即使他们还没有出现这种疾病的严重症状。

"In this infection, we see very high levels of virus in the upper airway, in the nose and throat," says Marion Koopmans, head of the department of virus science at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, Netherlands, who is involved with that nation's public health response to the outbreak.

荷兰鹿特丹伊拉斯谟医学中心的病毒科学部主任马里恩•库普曼斯说:“在这次感染中，我们发现呼吸道上部、鼻腔和咽喉处的病毒含量非常高。”库普曼斯参与了荷兰应对此次疫情的公共卫生工作。

This emerging picture of the disease may help to explain why the coronavirus appears to be spreading so rapidly. Research from China shows it can take five or even 10 days for the first symptoms to emerge. Those in the very early stages of the disease continue to move through public places, unaware of the potential risk they pose. Even when symptoms start, they can be vague, similar to the cold and flu. Other studies from China show that some may never experience symptoms at all."That makes the policy of case finding and containment very challenging," Koopmans says.

这种新出现的疾病图像可能有助于解释为什么冠状病毒传播如此迅速。来自中国的研究表明，第一次出现症状可能需要5天甚至10天。那些处于该病早期阶段的人继续在公共场所活动，没有意识到他们所构成的潜在风险。即使症状开始出现，也可能很模糊，类似于感冒和流感。来自中国的其他研究表明，一些人可能根本不会出现症状。库普曼斯说:“这使得发现和遏制病例的政策非常具有挑战性。”

Koopmans says that the revelation came for her while trying to conduct disease surveillance in the Netherlands. Like many countries, the Netherlands initially screened patients with a history of foreign travel. But when a handful of untraceable cases appeared within the country, her team shifted strategies and began to test health care workers in the hospitals where the cases were reported. They found that many were mildly ill — and already highly infectious.

库普曼斯说，她是在试图在荷兰进行疾病监测时得知这一消息的。与许多国家一样，荷兰最初对有海外旅行史的患者进行了筛查。但是，当该国出现了少数无法追踪的病例时，她的团队改变了策略，开始对报告病例的医院的医护人员进行检测。他们发现，许多人患有轻微的疾病，但传染性已经很强。

"People can have really mild complaints, just a cough, just a sore throat, and already have a lot of virus [in their system]," she says.

她说:“人们可能会有非常轻微的症状，只是咳嗽，只是喉咙痛，而且(体内)已经有很多病毒了。”

Alfredo Garzino-Demo, a virologist based at the University of Maryland and affiliated with the University of Padua in Italy, says this characteristic, while not uncommon among viruses, makes this disease extremely hard to contain.

阿尔弗雷多·格兹诺·戴蒙是马里兰大学的病毒学家，隶属于意大利帕多瓦大学。他说，这种特性虽然在病毒中并不罕见，但却使这种疾病极难控制。

"Many diseases have a window period in which you don't have symptoms but you are still able to transmit," he says."But this one is particularly serious."

他说:“许多疾病都有一个窗口期，在这期间你没有症状，但你仍然可以传播。”“但这一次尤其严重。”

The evolving view helps explain why countries are having to resort to such extreme social distancing measures to contain the spread of the disease. It also highlights the need for broad testing of the general population, says Marie-Paule Kieny, director of research at Inserm, a French organization dedicated to the study of public health.

这一不断演变的观点有助于解释，为什么各国必须采取这种极端的社会疏远措施来遏制这种疾病的蔓延。法国致力于公共卫生研究的机构Inserm的研究主任玛丽•保尔•基尼表示，这也凸显了对普通人群进行广泛检测的必要性。

Without broad testing, "we can't look at the community and say what percentage of the people have had contact with the virus," she says. That information is crucial in determining how best to deploy economically crippling social distancing measures.

她说，如果没有广泛的检测，“我们无法观察社区，并确定有多少人接触过这种病毒。”这些信息对于决定如何最好地部署对经济造成严重损害的社会疏远措施至关重要。

Broad surveillance of the general population will be key to controlling subsequent waves of the disease, she warns, especially as draconian social distancing measures are loosened.

她警告说，对普通人群的广泛监测将是控制后续疾病蔓延的关键，特别是在严厉的社会疏远措施放松之际。

Despite the deep crisis faced by the world's public health systems, the scientists believe that the pandemic will eventually pass. Health care workers will do their best to handle the surges in illness, scientists will rush toward treatments and vaccines, and governments will try to support those in need.

尽管世界公共卫生系统面临严重的危机，但科学家们相信，大流行最终会过去。卫生保健工作者将尽最大努力应对疾病的激增，科学家将迅速研制治疗方法和疫苗，政府将努力支持那些有需要的人。

"There is a lot of generosity. People are really working hard to make this thing go away, doing their part," Garzino-Demo says. "We are going to win this war."

“大家都很慷慨。人们真的很努力地让这件事过去，尽自己的一份力，” 格兹诺·戴蒙说。“我们将赢得这场战争。”