全世界应该放下屠刀 合力抗击埃博拉病毒

As a terrifying outbreak of Ebola virus spreads across west Africa, the world is beginning to wake up to the threat of a public health disaster in the region – and possibly more widely – but efforts to contain the epidemic require much more local co-ordination and global support. With more than 1,100 cases and 660 deaths reported so far, this is not only the largest Ebola epidemic to date but also the first to threaten urban west Africa, where populations are larger and more mobile than in the relatively isolated central parts of the continent affected previously.

随着可怕的埃博拉病毒在西非各地不断蔓延，世界开始对西非（抑或更广泛地区）爆发一场公共健康灾难的威胁警觉起来，但遏制疫情需要当地更多的合作和全球的支持。迄今报道的感染人数超过1100人，死亡人数为660人，这不仅是历史上最严重的埃博拉疫情，而且还是该病毒首次威胁城镇化率更高的西非地区——与此前爆发疫情的相对封闭的中非地区相比，西非人口更多，而且流动性也更强。

Ebola’s scary reputation is based on its lethality – the virus kills about 60 per cent of those it infects – and the lack of any effective treatment beyond making sure that patients are kept fully hydrated. But it is not as contagious as some other germs such as influenza that can spread considerable distances through the air. People catch Ebola by physical contact with an infected person or animal; scientists believe fruit bats, often eaten as bushmeat in Africa, are a reservoir of infection.

埃博拉病毒的可怕名声源于其致死率（约为60%），而且除了确保病人充分补水以外，目前还无其他有效的治疗方案。但它的传染性不如流感等其他病毒，后者可以通过空气传播至相当远的地方。埃博拉病毒通过与受感染患者或动物的物理接触传染。科学家相信，在非洲常被当作野生动物食用的果蝠是埃博拉病毒的宿主。

Sophisticated healthcare, with quick diagnosis of suspected cases followed by barrier nursing and medical care, could halt the epidemic. The challenge is to provide that – or something closer to it than exists in much of west Africa today – in a region where the public health infrastructure is generally poor.

成熟的医疗卫生，加上对疑似病例的快速诊断，再加上隔离看护和治疗，可能阻止疫情的传播。挑战在于，一个公共卫生基础设施普遍匮乏的地区很难提供这些服务。西非大部分地区的医疗水平与之相距太大。

The World Health Organisation is already co-ordinating regional action with west African governments, and the medical assistance body Médecins Sans Frontières is active in the fight against Ebola, alongside some smaller western health charities. But they need more help from governments and agencies in the developed world, such as the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

世界卫生组织(WHO)已在与西非各国政府协调地区行动，医疗援助机构“无国界医生组织”(Medecins Sans Frontieres)与一些较小的西方医疗慈善机构一起，也积极参与到抗击埃博拉病毒的行动中。但它们需要来自发达世界的政府和机构——比如美国疾病控制与预防中心(US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention)——的更多帮助。

The first requirement is for better and faster diagnosis so that doctors can tell as quickly as possible whether someone is infected with Ebola, which resembles many other illnesses in its early symptoms. Because samples from suspected Ebola patients are an extreme biohazard risk, they must be handled in high-containment testing facilities, which are in short supply in west Africa.

第一个需求是更快更好的诊断，让医生可以尽快确诊某人是否感染埃博拉病毒。感染该病毒的初期症状与其他许多疾病类似。由于从疑似感染埃博拉病毒患者提取的样本的生物危害风险极大，因此必须在高防护的检测中心检测这些样本，但这些设施在西非供应不足。

Then patients must be treated in complete isolation by staff wearing full protective clothing (masks, gloves, gowns and goggles), with all equipment sterilised and patients kept away from friends and family. The World Medical Association warned yesterday that serious shortages of protective equipment were putting the lives of doctors and nurses at risk in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone; indeed several health workers, including two Americans, have already been infected. Health workers fighting bravely in the front line against Ebola deserve all the technical help they can get.

接下来病人必须接受完全隔离治疗，由穿着全套防护服（面罩、手套、长袍和护目镜）的医疗人员护理，对所有设备消毒，禁止病人与朋友和家人接触。世界医学会(World Medical Association)昨日警告称，防护装备严重短缺正让几内亚、利比里亚和塞拉利昂的医生和护士的生命处于危险当中；实际上，包括两名美国人在内的多名医护人员已经受到感染。勇敢地战斗在抗击埃博拉病毒第一线的医护人员，理应获得他们能够获得的所有技术援助。

While equipping and protecting staff properly is a matter of money and logistics, unhelpful social and cultural attitudes in west Africa will be harder to tackle – and will need assistance from local religious and political leaders.

为医护人员提供合适的装备和保护是资金和后勤的问题，而更大的问题在于西非的社会和文化态度，它们对于抗击疫情毫无帮助，这将需要当地宗教和政治领导人出手干预。

Many people in the region are suspicious of western healthcare and would rather take care of infected family members in the community than send them to an isolation hospital which they see as a place to die. Traditional death rituals, such as washing the body before a funeral, must also be suspended for Ebola victims.

该地区的许多人不相信西方的医疗保健，宁愿在社区里照顾受感染的家人，也不愿送到被他们视为死亡之地的隔离医院。因感染埃博拉病毒而死亡的患者也不应举行传统的死亡仪式，比如在葬礼前清洗尸体。

While Ebola is primarily a health issue, it could quickly become an economic crisis, too, for the region. Travel restrictions are appearing; yesterday Liberia closed most of its border crossings in an effort to halve the spread of the disease and Arik Air, a leading Nigerian airline, stopped flying from Liberia and Sierra Leone. The threat to international business and investment in west Africa should add weight to the humanitarian arguments for more decisive action against Ebola.

尽管埃博拉病毒主要是一个健康问题，但它可能很快演变为该地区的经济危机。已经出现了一些旅游禁令；昨日利比里亚关闭了大多数边界通道，以努力阻止埃博拉病毒的传播，尼日利亚主要航空公司Arik Air停飞了从利比里亚和塞拉利昂出发的航班。不论是出于人道主义，还是考虑到埃博拉对西非国际企业和投资造成的威胁，各方都应对埃博拉病毒采取更果断的行动。