PBS高端访谈:为什么寨卡病毒传播速度如此之快?

 　　JUDY WOODRUFF: Just weeks ago, hardly anyone in the U.S. knew what the Zika virus was, much less worried about it. But the World Health Organization's warning today put the Americas, including the U.S., on new notice. And, suddenly, a mosquito-borne virus is raising serious fears, especially for pregnant women.

　　Dr. Anthony Fauci is with the National Institutes of Health, and he updated the situation today. He joins us now from the NIH campus.

　　Welcome back to the program, Dr. Fauci.

　　Just how high a level of concern is there?

　　DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, National Institutes of Health: Well, we certainly are taking this very seriously. This is a new virus for the Western Hemisphere and the Americas. And it's been explosive in its outbreak in South America and in the Caribbean.

　　One of the issues that you mentioned that's important is that it is associated, at least temporally and geographically¹, with a disturbing increase in the incidence of a very serious complication of pregnancy², and that is fetuses⁴ having what's called microcephaly.

　　And microcephaly is a problem with the brain where the skull⁵ and the head is small, and there's a developmental problem and/or a damage problem to the brain, leading to dire⁶ consequences, often death, but major impairment.

　　为什么寨卡病毒传播速度如此之快?

　　Zika as a virus infection itself is relatively⁷ mild, and that's the reason why it's been essentially⁸ off the radar⁹ screen of people until it came in with a vengeance¹⁰ to South America. It causes a mild illness that lasts anywhere from three to five to seven days, and then it goes away, and you're fine.

　　It's the potential complication that we're seeing in South America and in the Caribbean with regard to pregnancy. And it's interesting, because it's an association that hasn't been completely proven to be cause and effect.

　　It certainly is associated, and it's puzzling, and we're trying to figure out just what the nature of this association is between infection and pregnant women and this problem of microcephaly in the fetus³ and in the infant.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: Is it understood why this is spreading so fast?

　　DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: Well, one of the reasons that we see spread like this, Judy, is that, up until now, South America and the Caribbean has been what we call immunologically naive¹¹ to Zika virus. They have never had Zika virus in the Western Hemisphere or in the Americas.

　　And so when a new infection like this comes in, there's no background immunity¹² in the population that would blunt the outbreak that we're seeing now, whereas something like dengue infection has been prevalent in South America, particularly in Brazil, for several years now. So there's that background immunity to it. No such immunity with Zika.

　　It's perfectly¹³ new to them, which makes it much, much easier to explode in the population. That, together with the fact that they're loaded with mosquitoes, who are the vectors of this particular virus infection. The Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are all over South America and Brazil, and that's the perfect vector to spread this infection.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, we have talked about pregnant women. Should everyone be concerned? Just women? I mean, who should be most worried?

　　DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: Well, certainly the focus is on women who are pregnant.

　　And that is the reason why the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the CDC, has given a guideline travel alert that, if an individual, a woman is pregnant, planning to be pregnant, not sure if they're pregnant, they should seriously consider postponing¹⁴ any travel to this region.

　　And it is recommended that they actually postpone¹⁵ until this situation gets clarified because of this association with this dire consequence.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: And what about for men? I mean, for men who contract the virus, can they can they pass it onto a woman through sexual contact?

　　DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: Well, that's a good question.

　　What has happened is, first of all, for a man who has no issue with passing it on to a woman sexually, it's a mild illness. But there is a single case that has been reported of a man who was infected in the region, went home to his wife, had sex with his wife, and she definitely got infected with Zika, and she had never left the country.

　　So, that's one example. We don't know if that's an outlier that's a very rare event, or if that is something that we will see more commonly. And the way you find out is do careful following and natural history studies and case control studies. So we're paying close attention to that. We're not sure how significant it's going to be.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: But, as we reported a minute ago, there's no vaccine¹⁶ yet, no treatment.

　　DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: That is correct. Vaccines¹⁷ under certain circumstances such as this, with a new virus and a new disease, generally take a few years before you have a vaccine that's approved by the regulatory authorities and ready to be distributed.

　　So, we're not thinking about that for at least another three to five years. However, since we have experience with similar viruses, we are now in the process of beginning the early stages of developing a vaccine for a phase one trial to determine safety and whether or not it induces the proper immune response.

　　And we fully¹⁸ expect that we will be able to be into that phase one trial within the calendar year of 2016.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: And beyond that, just warning people to stay away from these affected¹⁹ areas.

　　DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: Well, that's the truth. In other words, you have got to be careful, particularly with pregnant women, to make sure that if they are pregnant, that they go by the CDC guidelines and, as best as possible, avoid travel to these areas.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: Dr. Tony Fauci at the NIH, we thank you.

　　DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: Good to be with you.

 

1 geographically   

adv.地理学上，在地理上，地理方面

参考例句：

• Geographically, the UK is on the periphery of Europe. 从地理位置上讲，英国处于欧洲边缘。 来自辞典例句
• All these events, however geographically remote, urgently affected Western financial centers. 所有这些事件，无论发生在地理上如何遥远的地方，都对西方金融中心产生紧迫的影响。 来自名作英译部分

2 pregnancy   

n.怀孕，怀孕期

参考例句：

• Early pregnancy is often accompanied by nausea.怀孕早期常有恶心的现象。
• Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of miscarriage.怀孕期吸烟会增加流产的危险。

3 fetus   

n.胎，胎儿

参考例句：

• In the fetus,blood cells are formed in different sites at different ages.胎儿的血细胞在不同时期生成在不同的部位。
• No one knows why a fetus is not automatically rejected by the mother's immune system. 没有人知道为什么母亲的免疫系统不会自动排斥胎儿。

4 fetuses   

n.胎，胎儿( fetus的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• DNA was extracted from fetuses at mid-gestation, about 10 days past conception. DNA从受孕大约10天后的中期妊娠胚胎中提取。 来自互联网
• Brucellosis is a disease that causes fetuses to abort in cattle. 普鲁士菌病是一种可以导致牲畜胎儿夭折的疾病。 来自互联网

5 skull   

n.头骨；颅骨

参考例句：

• The skull bones fuse between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five.头骨在15至25岁之间长合。
• He fell out of the window and cracked his skull.他从窗子摔了出去，跌裂了颅骨。

6 dire   

adj.可怕的，悲惨的，阴惨的，极端的

参考例句：

• There were dire warnings about the dangers of watching too much TV.曾经有人就看电视太多的危害性提出严重警告。
• We were indeed in dire straits.But we pulled through.那时我们的困难真是大极了，但是我们渡过了困难。

7 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

8 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

9 radar   

n.雷达，无线电探测器

参考例句：

• They are following the flight of an aircraft by radar.他们正在用雷达追踪一架飞机的飞行。
• Enemy ships were detected on the radar.敌舰的影像已显现在雷达上。

10 vengeance   

n.报复，报仇，复仇

参考例句：

• He swore vengeance against the men who murdered his father.他发誓要向那些杀害他父亲的人报仇。
• For years he brooded vengeance.多年来他一直在盘算报仇。

11 naive   

adj.幼稚的，轻信的；天真的

参考例句：

• It's naive of you to believe he'll do what he says.相信他会言行一致，你未免太单纯了。
• Don't be naive.The matter is not so simple.你别傻乎乎的。事情没有那么简单。

12 immunity   

n.优惠；免除；豁免，豁免权

参考例句：

• The law gives public schools immunity from taxation.法律免除公立学校的纳税义务。
• He claims diplomatic immunity to avoid being arrested.他要求外交豁免以便避免被捕。

13 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

14 postponing   

v.延期，推迟( postpone的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• He tried to gain time by postponing his decision. 他想以迟迟不作决定的手段来争取时间。 来自辞典例句
• I don't hold with the idea of postponing further discussion of the matter. 我不赞成推迟进一步讨论这件事的想法。 来自辞典例句

15 postpone   

v.延期，推迟

参考例句：

• I shall postpone making a decision till I learn full particulars.在未获悉详情之前我得从缓作出决定。
• She decided to postpone the converastion for that evening.她决定当天晚上把谈话搁一搁。

16 vaccine   

n.牛痘苗，疫苗；adj.牛痘的，疫苗的

参考例句：

• The polio vaccine has saved millions of lives.脊髓灰质炎疫苗挽救了数以百万计的生命。
• She takes a vaccine against influenza every fall.她每年秋季接种流感疫苗。

17 vaccines   

疫苗，痘苗( vaccine的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His team are at the forefront of scientific research into vaccines. 他的小组处于疫苗科研的最前沿。
• The vaccines were kept cool in refrigerators. 疫苗放在冰箱中冷藏。

18 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

19 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。