H7N9: 禽流感擴散至北京及河南

A new strain of bird flu in China has reached Beijing and a central province, spreading beyond the eastern region around Shanghai where it was first detected.

中國爆發的一種新型禽流感已經出現在北京和一箇中部省份，範圍超出最初發現該禽流感的華東上海周邊地區。

By Sunday night, there had been 60 confirmed human infections with the H7N9 avian influenza virus, two weeks after it was publicly identified by Chinese health authorities. The 11 cases reported on Sunday was the biggest daily tally yet.

截止週日晚間，已有60人被確診感染了H7N9禽流感。中國衛生部門公開確認H7N9禽流感已有兩週。週日的11例感染病例是單日確診數量最多的一次。

AMong the cases reported over the weekend were two men in Henan province and a girl, 7, in Beijing – the first infection in the capital city. One of the men was reported to be in critical condition, but the other two people were stable, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

在週末報告的病例中，河南兩名男士被感染，北京一名7歲女童被感染——這是首都出現的首例感染病例。據官方的新華社報告，兩名男士中的一人情況危急，不過另外兩人病情穩定。

The World Health Organisation said there was no evidence yet of “sustained human-to-human transmission” of the new virus, which is needed for it to spread more widely. Thirteen of the people with confirmed infections have died.

世界衛生組織(WHO)表示，目前尚無證據表明新病毒能夠“持續地人傳人”，而人際傳染是疫情大規模擴散的必要條件。確診的感染者中，已有13人死亡。

Most of the cases have involved people who have come into contact with poultry. The parents of the girl in Beijing traded chickens and one of the men in Henan also dealt with live poultry.

多數感染者與家禽有過接觸。北京被感染的女童的父母販賣活雞，河南被感染者中的一名也處理活家禽。

“There’s no way to predict how it will spread but it’s not surprising if we have new cases in different places like we do in Beijing,” Michael O’Leary, China representative of the WHO, told reporters. “As far as we know, all the cases are individually infected in a sporadic and not connected way.”

WHO駐中國代表邁克爾•奧萊利(Michael O’Leary)告訴記者：“無法預測病毒如何擴散，但如果在其他地方出現像北京的案例，也不會讓人奇怪。據我們所知，迄今所有病例都是單獨感染的，而且這些感染是分散發生的，相互沒有關聯。”

Investigators have yet to pinpoint the source of the virus. The H7N9 strain does not make birds very sick, so it is much harder to identify than other strains of bird flu such as H5N1, which kills large numbers of birds.

調查人員尚未鎖定病毒的來源。H7N9病毒不會使禽類患上重病，因此比H5N1之類的禽流感更加難以發現。H5N1會殺死大批鳥類。

Health authorities have long worried that China could someday face a deadly pandemic similar to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which struck in 2003 and killed roughly one in ten of the 8,000 people infected worldwide.

長期以來，衛生部門一直擔心中國有一天會出現類似非典(SARS)一樣的疫病。非典發生於2003年，全世界有8000人被感染，死亡率達10%左右。

After the infection was reported in Beijing, the capital city followed Shanghai in closing all live poultry markets. Poultry farmers say sales have fallen sharply and fried-chicken chain KFC last week reported “a significant, negative impact” on its business.

在北京報告出現感染病例後，該市也效仿上海關閉了所有活禽交易市場。家禽飼養者稱，銷量急劇下滑。炸雞連鎖店肯德基(KFC)上週報告稱，其業務受到“嚴重的負面衝擊”。