Ebola is one of the deadliest viruses we know of.
埃博拉病毒是我们所了解最致命的病毒之一。
If left untreated, it kills about half of those it infects.
如果不进行治疗,一半受感染的人将死亡。
It can spread through pretty much every fluid your body makes, including blood and sweat.
它可以通过你身体产生的几乎所有液体进行传播,包括血液和汗液。
Even the dead can transmit the disease, often doing so at their own funerals.
即使是死人也会传染疾病,这经常在死者的葬礼上发生。
On December 26th, 2013, a two-year-old boy in southern Guinea got sick.
2013 年 12 月 26 日,几内亚南部一名两岁男童患病。
Just two days later, he died.
仅仅过了两天,他就离开了人世。
It took local doctors working with the international community four months to discover that Ebola was to blame, largely because it had never before been detected outside of Central Africa.
当地医生和国际团队经过 4 个月的合作,才发现这是埃博拉病毒所导致的,很大程度上是因为其从来没有在中非之外的地方被发现过。
In those four months, Ebola gained a head start that would prove devastating.
在之后的 4 个月里,埃博拉病毒开始迅速蔓延,逐渐转为毁灭性的。
The outbreak lasted two years and mushroomed into the largest Ebola epidemic in recorded history.
大爆发持续了两年,并迅速成为有史以来规模最大的埃博拉疫情。
More than 28,000 people contracted the disease and over 11,000 died.
超过 28,000 人感染了病毒,死者超过了 11,000 人。
In 2013, Guinea had no formal emergency response system, few trained contact tracers, and no rapid tests, border screenings, or licensed vaccine for Ebola.
在 2013 年,几内亚并没有正式的应急体系来应对埃博拉病毒,很少有经训练的疾控人员,也没有快速测试,边境筛查,或获得许可的疫苗。
After that epidemic, Guinea, with the support of the US and other international partners, completely overhauled their epidemic response system.
在疫情过后,几内亚在美国和国际伙伴的帮助下,对他们的流行病应急系统进行了彻底的变革。
And in January 2021, that system faced its first real test.
在 2021 年 1 月,这个系统迎来了它的第一次考验。
It started when a nurse in southern Guinea developed a headache, vomiting, and fever.
在几内亚南部,一个护士出现了头痛、呕吐和发烧的症状。
A few days later, she died.
几天之后,她因病去世,
As dictated by traditional burial practices, her family prepared her body for the funeral.
按照传统的葬礼的习俗,她的家人准备她的遗体进行安葬。
Within a week, the nurse’s husband and other family members started experiencing symptoms.
在一周之内,她的丈夫和其他家庭成员也出现了类似的症状。
Health officials suspected Ebola much quicker than in 2013 and ordered tests.
卫生官员比 2013 年更迅速地怀疑埃博拉病毒,并进行了检测。
They came back positive, and Guinea activated its epidemic alert system the next day.
检测结果为阳性,第二天,几内亚启动了流行病警报系统,
Then, lots of things happened very quickly.
之后,各方反应非常迅速。
Guinea’s National Agency for Health Security activated 38 district-level emergency operations centers, as well as a national one.
几内亚国家卫生安全局启动了 38 个区级应急行动中心,以及一个国家应急行动中心。
Teams of epidemiologists and contact tracers began the painstaking job of figuring out exactly who was exposed and when, generating a list of 23 initial contacts that quickly grew to over 1,100.
流行病学家和疾控团队开始了艰苦的工作,找出谁在什么地方接触病毒;他们列出了一份含有 23 人一级接触者的名单;这很快增至 1,100 人。
Advanced rapid testing capacity spun up in the city where the outbreak started.
最先爆发疫情的城市迅速设立了快速检测体系。
At Guinea’s borders with Liberia and Cote d’Ivoire, public health workers screened more than 2 million travelers.
在几内亚、利比里亚和科特迪瓦的边境,公共卫生工作者筛查了超过 2 百万位旅行者。
A large-scale vaccination campaign was started.
一次大规模的疫苗接种项目展开;
And, finally, more than 900 community mobilizers alerted people of the outbreak and suggested alternative burial practices that were acceptable to the community and reduced the risk of spreading Ebola.
最终,超过 900 名社区志愿者给人们发出疫情警报,并建议采用其他被大众接受的埋葬方式来处置死者,这种做法减少了埃博拉病毒的传播风险。
Thanks to all these measures, the 2021 outbreak ended just four months after it began.
得益于这些措施,2021 年的大爆发在仅仅 4 个月后就结束了。
Only 23 people contracted Ebola; only 12 died.
仅有 23 人感染了埃博拉病毒,其中仅 12 人死亡。
That's less than 1% of the deaths in the prior outbreak.
这还不到之前大爆发的百分之一。
The 2021 outbreak cost $100 million to control— which sounds like a lot but pales in comparison to the global economic cost of the previous outbreak: $53 billion.
用来控制 2021 年大爆发的花销是一亿美金,这听起来很多,但与前一次埃博拉疫情中全球 530 亿美元的经济损失相形见绌。530 亿美元!
So should every country just copy Guinea’s approach?
那么,是不是所有国家都应该效仿几内亚的方法呢?
Not exactly.
并不是。
It is always important to respond to an outbreak quickly, so an early warning system is essential.
迅速应对流行病大爆发总是很重要的,早期预警系统也是不可或缺的。
But beyond that, a successful response can look very different for different diseases in different countries.
但除此之外,一个成功的反应因不同疾病或者不同国家而各不相同。
For example, Brazil quenched an outbreak of yellow fever, which is spread by mosquitoes, primarily by mounting a massive vaccination campaign.
例如,巴西迅速消灭了通过蚊子传播的黄热病爆发,这主要是通过大规模的疫苗接种实现的。
That strategy worked well for Brazil because it’s one of the major global producers of the yellow fever vaccine, and its population was accustomed to regular, routine vaccinations.
这种方法对巴西很有效,因为巴西是世界上黄热病疫苗的生产大国,而且巴西民众已经习惯于定期的常规疫苗接种。
But for many diseases, you don't even need a mass vaccination program.
但是对付很多疾病并不需要大规模的疫苗接种。
In August of 2021, a truck driver tested positive for cholera in Burkina Faso.
2021 年 8 月,一名卡车司机在布基纳法索检测出霍乱阳性,
Health care workers alerted the government that same day and contact tracing began immediately.
卫生工作人员在当天就对政府发出了警告,并且开始追踪接触者。
Cholera is caused by a bacterium, so Burkina Faso gave antibiotics to those exposed or potentially exposed.
霍乱是由细菌引起的,因此,布基纳法索为那些接触或可能接触的人提供了抗生素。
This extremely fast response stopped the outbreak just a few weeks after it started.
这种极其迅速的反应在几个星期内阻止了疫情的爆发。
Cholera often rears its head in West Africa—in 2021, there were over 100,000 cases and more than 3,700 deaths.
霍乱经常出现在在西非,在 2021 年,有超过 100,000 例霍乱,超过3,700人死亡。
Because Burkina Faso was so well prepared, they had zero deaths that year.
但是因为布基纳法索准备充分,其在当年没有死亡病例。
Zero.
一个也没有!
In Chiang Mai, Thailand, health officials piloted a community-owned, community-driven outbreak alert system to monitor animal health—that’s important because some animal outbreaks have the potential to spill over and become human outbreaks.
在泰国清迈,卫生官员试行了一个社区自建并由社区驱动的疫情警报系统,来监控动物的健康。这很重要,因为一些动物疫情可能会转变为人类疫情爆发。
Villagers used an app to alert health authorities about outbreaks in animals.
村民们使用应用程序给卫生局上报动物疫情的信息,
Over the course of 16 months, 36 animal outbreaks were identified.
在 16 个月内,发现了 36 起动物疫情。
For any outbreak response system to be effective, it needs to be trusted, valued, and ultimately used by communities.
为了保证任何疫情应对系统的有效性,它需要被大家信任、重视、 并最终在社区中使用。
That means reaching people where they are, in the language they speak, and aware of the culture, beliefs, and practices with which they live.
这意味着用当地的语言接触那里的居民,并了解他们的文化、信仰和他们的生活习惯。
Perhaps most importantly, we can't expect to do nothing for years and then just swing into action when an outbreak occurs.
最重要的大概是,我们不能消极怠工,在疫情到来时才进入状态。
One of the best ways to save lives is to invest in lasting health infrastructure, 365 days a year, for everyone, especially the most vulnerable among us.
拯救生命的最佳方式之一是对于卫生基础设施的持久投资,一年 365 天,对每个人的投入,特别是我们当中易感染的人。