世衛(wèi)認(rèn)定新冠肺炎為“全球性流行病”

The world is now in the grip of a coronavirus pandemic, the director general of the World Health Organization has said, as he expressed deep concern about “alarming levels of inaction” in the fight against the spread of the disease.

世界衛(wèi)生組織總干事譚德塞表示，新冠肺炎已構(gòu)成“全球性流行病”。他對(duì)在抗擊新冠肺炎傳播方面“令人震驚的不作為”深表關(guān)注。

In the past two weeks, the number of cases outside China has increased 13-fold, said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and the number of affected countries has tripled. There are 118,000 cases in 114 countries and 4,291 people have lost their lives.

譚德塞博士說(shuō)，過(guò)去兩周，中國(guó)以外的病例數(shù)量增加了13倍，受影響國(guó)家和地區(qū)的數(shù)量增至三倍。全球114個(gè)國(guó)家和地區(qū)的確診病例達(dá)到11.8萬(wàn)，4291人因此喪生。

“Thousands more are fighting for their lives in hospital,” Tedros said at a briefing in Geneva. “In the days and weeks ahead, we expect to see the many cases, the many deaths and the number of affected countries climb even higher.

譚德塞在日內(nèi)瓦的一次新聞發(fā)布會(huì)上說(shuō)：“還有數(shù)千人在醫(yī)院里苦苦求生。在未來(lái)的幾天和幾周內(nèi)，我們預(yù)計(jì)確診病例、死亡病例和受影響國(guó)家和地區(qū)數(shù)量都會(huì)增加。”

"WHO has been assessing this outbreak around the clock and we are deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity, and by the alarming levels of inaction.

“世衛(wèi)組織一直在不間斷地評(píng)估新冠肺炎疫情，我們對(duì)令人震驚的擴(kuò)散和嚴(yán)重程度以及不作為深感關(guān)切。”

We have therefore made the assessment that COVID-19 can be characterized as a pandemic.

“因此，我們經(jīng)過(guò)疫情評(píng)估后認(rèn)為新冠肺炎已成為大流行。”

Pandemic is not a word to use lightly or carelessly. It is a word that, if misused, can cause unreasonable fear, or unjustified acceptance that the fight is over, leading to unnecessary suffering and death.

“‘大流行’一詞不應(yīng)隨便使用。如果濫用，會(huì)導(dǎo)致無(wú)端的恐慌，或者不合理地接受‘抗疫戰(zhàn)斗已結(jié)束’，導(dǎo)致不必要的痛苦和死亡。”

Describing the situation as a pandemic does not change WHO’s assessment of the threat posed by this virus. It doesn’t change what WHO is doing, and it doesn’t change what countries should do.

“將新冠肺炎疫情稱(chēng)為大流行并不會(huì)改變世衛(wèi)組織對(duì)新冠病毒構(gòu)成的威脅的評(píng)估。它不會(huì)改變世衛(wèi)組織的措施，也不會(huì)改變各國(guó)應(yīng)采取的措施。”

We have never before seen a pandemic sparked by a coronavirus. This is the first pandemic caused by a coronavirus.

“我們以前從未見(jiàn)過(guò)冠狀病毒引發(fā)的大流行病，這還是第一次。”

And we have never before seen a pandemic that can be controlled, at the same time."

“同時(shí)，我們以前也從未見(jiàn)過(guò)一場(chǎng)可以得到控制的大流行病。”

As the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) explains on its website, “an epidemic occurs when an infectious disease spreads rapidly to many people.” Usually, what precedes an epidemic is an outbreak, or “a sudden rise in the number of cases of a disease.” An outbreak can affect a single community or several countries, but it’s on a much smaller scale than an epidemic.

感染控制和流行病學(xué)專(zhuān)業(yè)人員協(xié)會(huì)在網(wǎng)站上解釋道：“當(dāng)一種傳染性疾病迅速傳播給許多人時(shí)，就被稱(chēng)為epidemic。”通常，epidemic發(fā)生之前會(huì)有outbreak(疾病暴發(fā))，即“某種疾病案例的突然增加”。Outbreak可能影響到單個(gè)社區(qū)或幾個(gè)國(guó)家，但規(guī)模比epidemic小得多。

If an epidemic can’t be contained and keeps expanding its reach, public health officials might start calling it a pandemic, which means it’s affected enough people in different areas of the world to be considered a global outbreak. In short, a pandemic is a worldwide epidemic. It infects more people, causes more deaths, and can also have widespread social and economic repercussions.

如果一場(chǎng)epidemic不能被控制住，還在不斷蔓延，公共衛(wèi)生官員可能就要開(kāi)始稱(chēng)之為pandemic，意思是這場(chǎng)流行病已經(jīng)影響到世界不同地區(qū)足夠多的人，到了全球性暴發(fā)的程度。簡(jiǎn)而言之，pandemic就是全球性的流行病。Pandemic感染的人更多，導(dǎo)致的死亡人數(shù)更多，還可能對(duì)社會(huì)和經(jīng)濟(jì)造成廣泛的影響。

This pandemic was unlike any others in that it could be controlled, he said. The experience in China and South Korea, where the numbers of cases are falling, showed it was possible to turn things around. But many countries were not doing what was necessary.

譚德塞說(shuō)，這次大流行病與以往任何一次都不同，是可以控制的。中國(guó)和韓國(guó)的經(jīng)驗(yàn)表明，疫情是有可能扭轉(zhuǎn)的，這兩個(gè)國(guó)家的病例數(shù)量正在下降。但許多國(guó)家沒(méi)有采取必要的措施。

“We have called every day for countries to take urgent and aggressive action. We have rung the alarm bell loud and clear,” he said.

他說(shuō)：“我們每天都呼吁各國(guó)積極采取緊急行動(dòng)。我們已經(jīng)響亮而明確地敲響了警鐘。”

Ghebreyesus was keen to stress that it was not too late to control the outbreak. The majority of cases – 90% of the 118,000 – are in just four countries: Italy, Iran, South Korea and China. “All countries can still change the course of this pandemic,” he said. He called on all countries to detect, test, treat, isolate, track contacts and mobilise their people in response to the pandemic.

譚德塞特別強(qiáng)調(diào)指出，現(xiàn)在控制疫情還為時(shí)不晚。在11.8萬(wàn)確診病例中，90%的病例發(fā)生在四個(gè)國(guó)家：意大利、伊朗、韓國(guó)和中國(guó)。他說(shuō)：“所有國(guó)家仍然可以改變疫情進(jìn)程。”他呼吁所有國(guó)家排查、檢測(cè)、治療、隔離、追蹤密切接觸者并動(dòng)員本國(guó)人民應(yīng)對(duì)疫情。

“Some countries are struggling with a lack of capacity, some countries are struggling with a lack of resources, some countries are struggling with a lack of resolve,” he said.

他說(shuō)：“一些國(guó)家在努力應(yīng)對(duì)能力不足的問(wèn)題，一些國(guó)家在努力應(yīng)對(duì)資源匱乏的問(wèn)題，還有一些國(guó)家在努力應(yīng)對(duì)缺乏決心的問(wèn)題。”

Asked which countries were failing to do enough, he and WHO’s director of emergencies, Dr Michael Ryan, refused to be specific. “You know who you are,” said Ryan. The WHO would not criticise its member states in public. But, he said, it was not enough to limit testing to small numbers of people who fitted risk criteria that might be out of date – people over a certain age with a history of travel to China, for instance.

當(dāng)被問(wèn)及哪些國(guó)家做得不夠時(shí)，他和世衛(wèi)組織應(yīng)急行動(dòng)司司長(zhǎng)邁克爾·瑞安博士拒絕詳細(xì)說(shuō)明。瑞安說(shuō)：“這些國(guó)家自己很清楚。”世界衛(wèi)生組織不會(huì)公開(kāi)批評(píng)其成員國(guó)。但他表示，將檢測(cè)局限于一小部分符合風(fēng)險(xiǎn)標(biāo)準(zhǔn)的人是不夠的，比如，超過(guò)一定年齡、有過(guò)中國(guó)旅行史的人等這些標(biāo)準(zhǔn)可能已經(jīng)過(guò)時(shí)了。

Some countries had not established sufficient capacity for isolating people, he said. Other countries were too willing to give up on contact tracing too soon, which could help slow the spread. Some countries were not communicating well with their people, giving them the information they need to keep themselves and others safe.

他說(shuō)，一些國(guó)家還沒(méi)有足夠的能力實(shí)施隔離措施。還有些國(guó)家總想過(guò)早放棄追蹤密切接觸者，而追蹤密切接觸者有助于減緩傳播。一些國(guó)家沒(méi)有很好地與本國(guó)民眾進(jìn)行溝通，向他們提供所需信息，以保證其自身和他人的安全。

The WHO warning came as the death toll from the virus in Italy rose by 31% in 24 hours to 827, and the government there began considering imposing even tighter restrictions on daily life and announced billions of euros in financial relief to cushion against the economic shock.

世衛(wèi)組織發(fā)出警告之際，意大利新冠肺炎死亡病例在24小時(shí)內(nèi)增加了31%，達(dá)到827人，該國(guó)政府開(kāi)始考慮對(duì)日常生活施加更嚴(yán)格的限制，并宣布了數(shù)十億歐元的財(cái)政救助，以緩解經(jīng)濟(jì)受到的沖擊。

In Iran, by far the hardest-hit country in the Middle East, the senior vice-president and two other cabinet ministers were reported to have been diagnosed with Covid-19, the illness caused by the virus.

到目前為止，伊朗是中東地區(qū)疫情最嚴(yán)重的國(guó)家。據(jù)報(bào)道，伊朗第一副總統(tǒng)和另外兩名內(nèi)閣成員已確診感染了由新冠病毒引起的新冠肺炎。