衛生部門:中國兩人死於新型禽流感
Two people in China have died and another is critically ill from a strain of bird flu that has never been passed to humans before, according to China’s health authorities.
中國衛生部門表示，中國有兩人因感染一種新型禽流感病毒死亡，還有一人病情嚴重。以前從未有人類感染過這種禽流感病毒。The deaths of two men, one 87 and one 27 years old, in Shanghai have raised the spectre of a new epidemic 10 years after the Sars virus caused panic in Asia.
十年前，非典(Sars)病毒在亞洲引起恐慌。如今，上海兩名男子的死亡令人們擔心一場新的流行病即將爆發。The two men contracted the H7N9 avian influenza virus in late February and died in early March, suffering from acute pneumonia and breathing difficulties, according to an announcement from China’s national health and family planning commission, reported by state media yesterday.
中國官方媒體昨日報道稱，中國國家衛生和計劃生育委員會宣佈，兩名男子在2月底感染H7N9禽流感，隨後出現重症肺炎和呼吸困難，3月初死亡。
The commission was able to identify the infections, and that of a woman in Anhui province near Shanghai who fell ill in early March and remains in a critical condition, as H7N9 on Friday after extensive testing that ruled out other strains of bird flu.
該委員會經過大量實驗室篩查，排除了其他類型禽流感病毒，並得以在上週五確認，上述兩名男子以及安徽省一名女子（3月初發病，目前病情仍然嚴重）感染的是H7N9禽流感病毒。So far, none of the 88 people who came into contact with the three known carriers have shown any symptoms of the disease, according to state media, suggesting it is not easily transmitted among humans.
中國官方媒體稱，三名已知攜帶者接觸過的88人均未呈現發病症狀——這說明這種病毒在人類間的傳染性不強。There are no known vaccines for the H7N9 virus, which has previously only been found in bird populations and the health commission said it did not know how the three people contracted the disease.
目前尚無針對H7N9禽流感病毒的疫苗。這種病毒以往只在禽類中發現過，衛生和計劃生育委員會表示，三人感染此病毒的原因尚不清楚。None of the three have the same surname and all were infected at different times, suggesting they are not related to each other and probably contracted the disease separately.
上述三人不同姓，感染時間也各不相同，這說明他們沒有親屬關係、具體感染來源可能也各不相同。The decision to publicly report the unusual infections contrasts with the situation 10 years ago, when China initially went to great lengths to cover up the true extent of the Sars epidemic that eventually killed nearly 800 people.
中國當局決定公開報告此次異常感染情況，此舉與10年前形成鮮明對比。當年，中國當局一開始曾花費很大力氣來掩蓋非典的真實情況。那場疫情最終導致近800人死亡。
