【09.04.28 纽约时报】猪流感命名，一个铭感的话题

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【原文标题】The Naming of Swine Flu, a Curious Matter
【中文标题】猪流感命名，一个铭感的话题
【登载媒体】Newyork Times 纽约时报
【来源地址】http://bbs.m4.cn/thread-161338-1-1.html
【译者】Athan zhang
【翻译方式】人工
【声明】本翻译供Anti-CNN使用，未经AC或译者许可，不得转载。
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【原文库链接】http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/29/world/asia/29swine.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=flu,%20china&st=cse
【译文】


By KEITH BRADSHER
Published: April 28, 2009
HONG KONG — What to call the new strain of flu raising alarms around the world has taken on political, economic and diplomatic overtones.


如何命名在全世界拉响警钟的新型流感，已不仅仅是科学研究的问题了，它已经添上了关于政治、经济和外交的意味。

Pork producers question whether the term "swine flu" is appropriate, given that the new virus has not yet been isolated in samples taken from pigs in Mexico or elsewhere. While the new virus seems to be most heavily composed of genetic sequences from swine influenza virus material, it also has human and avian influenza genetic sequences as well, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.


在得知从墨西哥或其他地方猪身上提取的样本中没有分离出这种新病毒后，猪肉生产者开始质疑"猪流感"的说法是否适宜。根据位于亚特兰大的疾病防控中心的说法，尽管新型病毒可能主要由来自猪流感病毒的基因序列组成，但它同时也含有人类和鸟类流感病毒基因序列。
Government officials in Thailand, one of the world’s largest meat exporters, have started referring to the disease as “Mexican flu.” An Israeli deputy health minister — an ultra-Orthodox Jew — said his country would do the same, to keep Jews from having to say the word “swine.” However, his call seemed to have been largely ignored.


世界上最大的肉类输出国之一，泰国，它的政府官员已经开始称这疾病为"墨西哥流感"。一名以色列副健康部长，同时又是一个极端正统的犹太人，说他的国家会采取同样的行动，不会让犹太人称它为猪流感。但他的呼吁似乎在很大程度上被忽略了。
Janet Napolitano, the secretary for homeland security, and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack went out of their way at a press conference in Washington on Tuesday to refer to the virus by its scientific name, as the "H1N1 virus."


国家安全部长Janet Napolitano和农业部长Tom Vilsack费心的去参加星期二在华盛顿举办的记者招待会，用病毒的科学名称，“H1N1病毒”
，称这种病毒。
"This is not a food-borne illness, virus -- it is not correct to refer to it as swine flu because really that's not what this is about," Mr. Vilsack said.


“这不是一种食物传染疾病，病毒，称呼它为猪流感是不正确的，因为这不是它的实质，” Vilsack先生说。
The World Organization for Animal Health, which handles veterinary issues around the world, issued a statement late Monday suggesting that the new disease should be labeled “North American influenza,” in keeping with a long medical tradition of naming influenza pandemics for the regions where they were first identified. This has included the Spanish flu of 1918 to 1919, the Asian flu of 1957 to 1958 and the Hong Kong flu of 1967 to 1968.


世界范围内处理动物疾病问题的世界动物健康组织，星期一晚些时候发表了一道申明，建议这种新疾病称为‘’北美流感‘’，正好与长久以来医学相一致，用首先确定流感传播的地区来命名流感。按这种方法命名的疾病有1918年至1919年的西班牙流感，1957年至1958年的亚洲流感，以及1967年至1968年香港流感。
The debate is likely to continue as scientists and health authorities try to trace the disease. While all signs now point to Mexico as the epicenter, the genetic material in the virus there includes part of a swine influenza virus of Eurasian origin. And influenza viruses tend to emerge from Asia.


由于科学家以及卫生官员们尝试去追踪这种疾病的起源，关于它的这场争论很可能会继续下去。尽管所有迹象都指出墨西哥是疾病爆发的中心，但这种病毒的基因物质里却包含了部分起源于欧亚大陆的一种猪流感病毒。并且流感病毒可能是从亚洲传出来的。
Prime Minister Wen Jiabao of China called for stepped up measures on Tuesday to prevent and control any possible cases of swine flu that might show up in the country.


中国国家总理温家宝星期二时呼吁加强措施去预防和控制任何可能在中国出现的猪流感病例。
Many medical historians believe that the Asian and Hong Kong flus started in southeastern China near Hong Kong, where very high densities of people live in close proximity to hogs and chickens in rural areas and can share their viruses. Some historians also suggest that the Spanish flu also started in southeastern China.


很多医学历史学家相信亚洲和香港流感是从靠近香港的中国东南部传出，那个地区的农村有很多家都养有猪和鸡，居民可能从它们身上感染病毒。一些历史学家同样也提出西班牙流感也是从中国东南部传出来的。
The Mexican ambassador to Beijing, Jorge Guajardo, has been outspoken this week in suggesting that the disease did not originate in Mexico. He said in a telephone interview on Tuesday that the disease was brought to his country by an infected person from somewhere in “Eurasia,” the land mass of Europe and Asia.


墨西哥驻北京大使Jorge Guagado，这周已经公开发言指出这种疾病不是始于墨西哥。他在星期二的一次电话访问中说这种疾病是由来自“欧亚（欧洲和亚洲大陆）”某地感染此病的人带到墨西哥的。
Ambassador Guajardo said in a telephone interview that his government had been told by American and Canadian experts that the genetic sequence of the virus pointed to Eurasian origin.


Guajardo大使在一次电话访问里说美国和加拿大的专家已经告知他的政府，病毒的基因序列源于欧亚大陆。
“This did not happen in Mexico,” he said, adding, “It was a human who brought this to Mexico.”



“这疾病不是在墨西哥产生的”，他说，并补充到，“是感染它的一个人带到墨西哥去的。”
But flu specialists in Asia said that the new virus probably did not make the jump from animals to people in Asia.


但亚洲的流感专家说新的病毒当时可能并没有从感染动物到感染亚洲居民转变。
“If that is the case, you would see a lot of infections in Asia by now,” said Subash Morzaria, the regional manager for Asia and the Pacific at the Emergency Center for Transboundary Diseases, which is part of the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization.



“如果是那样，到现在你会在亚洲看到很多感染者了。”越境疾病应急中心，亚洲和太平洋事务的地区管理员Subash Morzaria说，该中心是联合国食物和农业组织的一部分。
The neuraminidase genetic segment of the virus, which gives the virus its “N1” name and controls the ability of the virus to break out of infected cells, comes from a Eurasian strain of swine flu, said Dr. Yuen Kwok-yung, a microbiologist at Hong Kong University. But he added that enough pigs are moved across national borders that it is impossible to place the location more precisely.


给病毒命名“N1”并且控制病毒突破感染细胞能力的是病毒基因片段的神经氨酸酶，它来自一种欧亚大陆猪流感病毒，香港大学的微生物学家，Yuen Kwok-yung教授说。但他又补充说足够数量的猪被运过了国家边境，所以不可能 更准确定位出病毒的发源地。
There seems little indication of any outbreak of the new flu in China. There have been no recent surges in illnesses among pigs or pig farmers, according to Ben Boake, the executive vice president of the Henan Zhongpin Food Company Ltd., one of China’s largest pork processors.


似乎很少有迹象表明在中国有任何爆发新流感的情况。据中国最大的猪肉加工厂商之一，河南众品食物有限公司的执行副主席Ben Boake说，最近在猪和养猪农民中没有感染疾病数量猛增的情况。
Millions of pigs died in China two years ago in an epidemic so severe that it pushed pork prices up 90 percent. Veterinarians attributed the deaths at the time mainly to blue-ear disease, which does not affect humans, but also to swine flu. The Chinese government did not issue a public report assessing the outbreak and provided very few details to international organizations.


在中国，上百万的猪在两年前死于一场很严重的流行病，导致了猪肉价格上涨了90% 。当时兽医们把猪的死主要归结于猪蓝耳疾病，一种不会感染人的，但同样归属于猪流感的病。中国政府没有发表评估那次流行病爆发的公开报告，并且只提供了很少的细节给了相关国际组织。

林间画匠

为什么不命名为‘美国病’或‘西方病’呢。