韓國將排查所有入院肺炎患者控制MERS疫情
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea said on Tuesday that it would investigate all hospitalized pneumonia patients to determine whether they had been exposed to Middle East respiratory syndrome, as it struggled to contain an outbreak of the virus that has infected 95 people in the country and killed seven.
韓國首爾——韓國週二表示，將對所有入院治療的肺炎患者進行排查，以確定他們是否曾接觸中東呼吸綜合徵（Middle East Respiratory Syndrome，簡稱MERS）。目前，韓國正在艱難地控制MERS疫情，這裏已有95人受到感染，7人喪生。The outbreak of the virus, known as MERS, in South Korea is the largest reported outside Saudi Arabia, where more than 440 people have died of the disease since it was discovered there in 2012. MERS symptoms are similar to those of pneumonia.
據報道，除沙特阿拉伯以外，MERS疫情在韓國最爲嚴重。自2012年在沙特發現這種疾病以來，該國已有逾440人死於MERS。這種疾病的症狀與肺炎類似。
Although a vast majority of MERS patients in South Korea were infected in two hospitals, cases have also been found in seven other hospitals in Seoul, the capital, and elsewhere.
儘管韓國的絕大多數MERS患者是在兩家醫院受到感染的，但是首都首爾的另外七家醫院及其他一些地方，也發現了MERS病例。
Nearly 2,900 people who had been near any of the confirmed cases had been isolated as of Tuesday, to be monitored for symptoms by the government. More than 2,200 schools remained closed.
截至週二，曾與確診病例有過較密切接觸的近2900人被隔離，接受政府對他們進行的觀察，看是否會出現相關症狀。有2200多所學校處於停課狀態。The government said that on Wednesday it would interview all hospitalized pneumonia patients and also check their medical records to see if they had recently visited any of the hospitals where the infection had been found. South Korea’s first MERS case, a 68-year-old man who had traveled to Saudi Arabia and neighboring countries, was discovered to have the virus on May 20.
韓國政府表示將於週三對所有入院治療的肺炎患者進行詢問，並檢查他們的醫療記錄，看是否曾於近期前往發現感染病例的醫院。韓國的首名MERS患者是一名68歲的男子，曾去往沙特阿拉伯及多個鄰國。5月20日，他被發現攜帶這種病毒。Interviewing pneumonia patients is intended “to find any suspected case we have missed and to prevent a further spread of the virus,” the Health Ministry said in a statement. “Once we find a suspected patient, we will move him into a one-bed room and run a DNA test to determine if he carries the MERS virus.”
走訪肺炎患者是爲了“發現我們漏掉的任何疑似病例，阻止病毒進一步傳播”，韓國衛生部發表聲明稱。“一旦發現疑似患者，我們會將他轉移至單人病房，並通過DNA測試來判定他是否攜帶MERS病毒。”The government announced the plan after acknowledging it had failed to isolate some suspected cases soon enough. On Tuesday, four new MERS cases were found in three hospitals that had not been on the government list of infected hospitals.
在宣佈上述計劃之前，政府承認自己沒能儘快隔離一些疑似病患。週二，在三家並未列在政府之前公佈的感染名單上的醫院中，發現了四例新的MERS病例。On Tuesday, Hong Kong issued a “red alert” travel warning for South Korea, while the World Health Organization began work on a joint mission with South Korean doctors and officials to assess the outbreak in the country and review the government response.
週二，香港發佈了針對韓國的“紅色”外遊警示，世界衛生組織(World Health Organization)則開始與韓國醫療人員和官員一起開展聯合行動，以評估該國的疫情，並審覈政府的應對舉措。The travel alert “advises Hong Kong residents to avoid nonessential travel to Korea, including leisure travel,” the Hong Kong government said in a statement. It advised those already in South Korea to “avoid unnecessary visits to health care facilities.”
香港政府的聲明稱，旅遊警示“建議市民，如非必要，避免前赴韓國，包括前往當地旅遊”。政府還建議身在當地的港人“儘量避免到訪當地的醫療機構”。Hong Kong has been sensitive to infectious diseases since the outbreak of SARS in 2003, which killed hundreds of people.
自2003年爆發嚴重急性呼吸綜合徵(SARS)疫情並導致數百人死亡以來，香港對傳染性疾病一直比較敏感。Also on Tuesday, the airline Cathay Pacific, which is based in Hong Kong, and its subsidiary, Dragonair, said they would waive fees for people to rebook travel to South Korea from Hong Kong, given the travel alert.
同樣在週二，總部位於香港的國泰航空及其子公司港龍航空宣佈，鑑於旅遊警示，它們將免除乘客更改從香港到韓國的機票所需的費用。
