世衛組織稱利比里亞新增埃博拉病例減少

GENEVA — Three months after declaring West Africa’s Ebola epidemic a global emergency, the World Health Organization said Wednesday that new infections in Liberia, one of the worst affected countries, appeared to be declining. But the organization also warned against complacency in international efforts to fight the disease.

日內瓦——在宣佈西非的埃博拉疫情爲全球緊急狀況的三個月後，世界衛生組織(World Health Organization)週三稱，作爲疫情最嚴重的國家之一，利比里亞的新增病例似乎正在減少。但該組織也警告說，抗擊埃博拉的國際行動不能因此而自滿。

The health authorities in Liberia are reporting lower numbers of new infections; treatment centers in the capital, Monrovia, that once turned away victims now had unoccupied beds; and the number of burials of Ebola victims had started to drop, Dr. Bruce Aylward, the W.H.O. assistant director-general, told reporters in Geneva.

WHO助理總幹事布魯斯·艾爾沃德博士(Bruce Aylward)在日內瓦告訴記者，利比里亞衛生部門報告的新增感染人數正在減少；該國首都蒙羅維亞的治療中心一度曾把患者拒之門外，現在則有了空牀位；埃博拉患者的死亡人數已經開始下降。

“Do we feel confident that the response is now getting an upper hand on the virus? Yes, we are seeing a slowing of the rate of new cases very definitely” in Liberia, said Dr. Aylward, who is in charge of the operational response to the epidemic.

“我們是否相信，目前的應對措施已經控制住了埃博拉病毒？是的，我們看到，利比里亞的新增病例出現了明顯的下降，”負責埃博拉應對行動的艾爾沃德說。

At least 13,703 people have been infected by the virus, all but 27 of them in the three worst affected countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, according to the latest estimates cited by Dr. Aylward. Nearly half of the total is in Liberia.

根據艾爾沃德援引的最新統計數據，目前至少有13703人感染埃博拉病毒，其中除了27人之外，其餘全部來自三個疫情最嚴重的國家：幾內亞、利比里亞和塞拉利昂。全部的感染病例中，近一半來自利比里亞。

About 5,000 of the infected are reported to have died of the disease, which Dr. Aylward said still has a mortality rate of around 70 percent in the three countries most afflicted.

感染者中據稱已有5000人死亡，艾爾沃德說，在疫情最嚴重的三個國家，埃博拉患者的死亡率仍在70%左右。

Despite the positive data from Liberia, Dr. Aylward was cautious. He expressed concern that infection rates could start to oscillate and that areas thought to have been purged of the disease could become reinfected.

儘管利比里亞的數據給人希望，艾爾沃德仍然持謹慎態度。他擔心，感染率可能會開始上下波動，在據信已經消滅了埃博拉病毒的地區，病毒也可能會捲土重來。

“I am terrified that the information will be misinterpreted and people will start to think, ‘Oh, great, this is under control,’ ” he said. “That’s like saying your pet tiger is under control. This is a very, very dangerous disease.”

“我非常擔心這個消息可能會被誤解，人們會開始認爲，‘噢，太好了，埃博拉已經得到控制，’”他說。“這就像是說，你能控制自己養的寵物老虎一樣。埃博拉可是一種非常、非常危險的疾病。”

Just a few mishandled burials, Dr. Aylward said, could “start a whole new transmission chain and the disease starts trending upward again.”

艾爾沃德說，哪怕是少數的死亡病例處理不當，都可能“產生全新的傳播鏈條，使疫情再次呈現擴大的態勢”。

The first death from Ebola in Mali last week underscored the danger that the disease will spill into neighboring countries. W.H.O. data shows new cases of infection in all but two of the districts in Guinea and Liberia that border Ivory Coast.

馬裏上週出現了首個埃博拉死亡病例，突顯了疫情蔓延至鄰國的危險。世衛組織的數據顯示，在幾內亞和利比里亞，除了與科特迪瓦接壤的兩個地區外，其他地區均出現了新增感染病例。

Dr. Aylward partly attributed the apparent easing in Liberia to aggressive efforts to establish safe burials of victims, who are most contagious at death.

艾爾沃德博士認爲，利比里亞疫情似乎有所緩解，部分原因在於積極採取措施，確保患者得到安全掩埋。患者死亡時，傳染性是最強的。

He also said the Liberia government’s intensive public education campaign to minimize contact with the infected, and a rapid increase in the capacity of treatment centers to isolate patients, appeared to have helped.

他還表示，利比里亞政府爲了儘量減少民衆與感染者的接觸，開展了緊密的公共教育，爲了隔離患者，也迅速增強了治療中心的承載能力。這些舉措似乎都起到了幫助。

Fifteen treatment centers are now operating in the three worst hit countries, and another 22 should be functional by the end of November.

目前，在疫情最嚴重的這三個國家，共有15家治療中心在運行。預計到11月底，另外22家也將投入使用。

Still, achieving a drop in day-to-day infection rates is not ending the epidemic, which Dr. Aylward called “a completely different ballgame.”

然而，實現感染率逐日下降，並不等於消滅疫情。艾爾沃德稱，那是“一種截然不同的情形”。

The better news from Liberia comes only two weeks after the W.H.O. warned the epidemic could produce 10,000 new cases every week by December. Dr. Aylward did not discard that assessment, but said it would be reviewed.

就在利比里亞傳來好消息的兩週前，世衛組織警告稱，在12月前，每週可能會有1萬人新感染埃博拉病毒。艾爾沃德沒有完全放棄這一估計數字，但表示會對其進行調整。

The positive trend seen in Liberia should be taken as a sign that with the planned investments, “this virus can be stopped,” Dr. Aylward said. “But it’s going to take a very, very aggressive program of work to capitalize on those opportunities.”

艾爾沃德表示，應當把利比里亞出現的積極趨勢當做一個跡象，它表明憑藉原計劃的投入，“這種病毒可以遏制。但需要執行一個非常非常積極的工作計劃，才能抓住那些機會。”

The Ebola virus, which has no confirmed cure, began to spread in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone in March. It is now considered one of the worst global health emergencies in modern times.

埃博拉病毒於3月開始在利比里亞、幾內亞和塞拉利昂擴散，目前還沒有得到證實的治療方法。目前，埃博拉被認爲是現代歷史上最嚴重的全球突發公共衛生事件之一。

Dr. Margaret Chan, the W.H.O.’s director-general, has spoken in increasingly dire terms about the Ebola outbreak and the need to stop it. She told an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council last month that the outbreak was “likely the greatest peacetime challenge that the United Nations and its agencies have ever faced.”

世衛組織總幹事陳馮富珍博士(Margaret Chan)在談論埃博拉疫情，以及阻止疫情的必要性時，措辭越來越緊迫。她上個月在聯合國安理會召開的一次緊急會議上表示，埃博拉“可能是聯合國及其機構有史以來在和平時期面臨的最大挑戰”。