2020年经济学人 Covid-19:世界已做好准备(3)

Confirming a suspected infection in a laboratory can take days. Some small European countries have just one or two laboratories able to process covid-19 tests. Europe’s entire supply of test kits¹ is shipped from the two main laboratories of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDE), the EU’s public-health agency. America’s supply all comes from the CDC in Atlanta. It will be several months before commercial tests are available.

在实验室确认疑似感染可能需要几天时间。一些欧洲小国只有一两个能进行covid-19测试的实验室。欧洲所有的检测盒都是从欧盟的公共卫生机构——欧洲疾病预防和控制中心的两个主要实验室运来的。美国的供应全部来自亚特兰大的疾病预防控制中心。要过几个月才能进行商业测试。

Tests could soon run short if other countries experience covid-19 epidemics³ like China’s. Delays in getting the results would increase. A lab technician must first prepare the samples. After that, processing each test through a molecular-analysis machine can take an hour and a half. These machines also run tests for the seasonal⁴ flu and other diseases. A covid-19 epidemic² in the middle of winter—peak season for the common flu—would quickly overwhelm laboratories in most countries. Rapid diagnostic tests for the new virus that are as quick to carry out in doctors’ offices as pregnancy⁵ tests were at the top of the wish-list at a WHO meeting about research priorities for covid-19 in February.

如果其他国家也像中国一样经历了类似的covid-19传染病，延迟确诊的情况会增多。实验室技术人员必须先准备样品。在此之后，可能需要一个半小时通过分子分析机器处理每个测试。这些机器还可以检测季节性流感和其他疾病。在普通流感的冬季高峰季节，covid-19的流行将很快淹没大多数国家的实验室。今年2月，在世界卫生组织召开的关于covid-19研究重点的会议上，对这种新病毒的快速诊断测试（像妊娠测试一样快）成为了人们的愿望清单上的首位。

Once an epidemic is in full swing, extensive testing to find everyone who might have the disease is less useful, says John Hick, an emergency coordinator⁶ at the Hennepin County Medical Centre in Minneapolis. At that point, he says, doctors will start to diagnose probable cases by symptoms alone—which is common practice for many illnesses, including the flu. Medics in parts of China are already doing this.

一旦流行病全面爆发，对每个可能患有这种疾病的人进行广泛的测试是没有用的，明尼阿波利斯市亨内平县医疗中心的紧急协调员约翰·希克表示。他说，到那时，医生将开始仅根据症状来诊断可能的病例——这是许多疾病的常见做法，包括流感。中国部分地区的医护人员已经在这样做了。

As with other contagious⁷ diseases, covid-19 patients in hospitals must be isolated⁸ to prevent its spread. When patients become too numerous to contain in isolation⁹ rooms, shared rooms, wings or entire floors may be set aside for covid-19 patients only. The Vrije University hospital in Amsterdam has dusted off its plans for doing this, including where to put “do not cross” lines to separate such sections, says Rosa van Mansfeld, who oversees¹⁰ infection prevention there. When all Dutch hospitals are overwhelmed, the lights will be turned on at the country’s “calamity hospital”, a fully¹¹ equipped facility in Utrecht that is otherwise shut (it last opened to care for the victims of a terrorist shooting in 2019). In Kinshasa, Congo’s capital, an empty Ebola treatment centre will be used when covid-19 cases are identified.

与其他传染性疾病一样，必须对医院的covid-19患者进行隔离，以防止传播。当患者人数过多而无法在隔离病房内容纳时，共用的房间、侧翼或整层楼可能只留给19名covid-19患者。阿姆斯特丹自由大学医院已经重新制定了相关计划，包括在哪些地方设置“防止交叉感染”的隔离区，负责感染预防的罗莎·范·曼斯菲尔德说。当荷兰所有的医院都人满为患时，该国灾难医院的灯就会亮起来。这家设备齐全的医院位于乌得勒支，原本是要关闭的（上次开放是为了照顾2019年恐怖分子枪击事件的受害者）。在刚果首都金沙萨，一家空的埃博拉治疗中心将在covid-19确诊后投入使用。

1 kits   

衣物和装备( kit的名词复数 )； 成套用品； 配套元件

参考例句：

• Keep your kits closed and locked when not in use. 不用的话把你的装备都锁好放好。
• Gifts Articles, Toy and Games, Wooden Toys, Puzzles, Craft Kits. 采购产品礼品，玩具和游戏，木制的玩具，智力玩具，手艺装备。

2 epidemic   

n.流行病；盛行；adj.流行性的，流传极广的

参考例句：

• That kind of epidemic disease has long been stamped out.那种传染病早已绝迹。
• The authorities tried to localise the epidemic.当局试图把流行病限制在局部范围。

3 epidemics   

n．流行病

参考例句：

• Reliance upon natural epidemics may be both time-consuming and misleading. 依靠天然的流行既浪费时间，又会引入歧途。
• The antibiotic epidemics usually start stop when the summer rainy season begins. 传染病通常会在夏天的雨季停止传播。

4 seasonal   

adj.季节的，季节性的

参考例句：

• The town relies on the seasonal tourist industry for jobs.这个城镇依靠季节性旅游业提供就业机会。
• The hors d'oeuvre is seasonal vegetables.餐前小吃是应时蔬菜。

5 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。

6 coordinator   

n.协调人

参考例句：

• The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, headed by the Emergency Relief Coordinator, coordinates all UN emergency relief. 联合国人道主义事务协调厅在紧急救济协调员领导下，负责协调联合国的所有紧急救济工作。
• How am I supposed to find the client-relations coordinator? 我怎么才能找到客户关系协调员的办公室？

7 contagious   

adj.传染性的，有感染力的

参考例句：

• It's a highly contagious infection.这种病极易传染。
• He's got a contagious laugh.他的笑富有感染力。

8 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。

9 isolation   

n.隔离，孤立，分解，分离

参考例句：

• The millionaire lived in complete isolation from the outside world.这位富翁过着与世隔绝的生活。
• He retired and lived in relative isolation.他退休后，生活比较孤寂。

10 oversees   

v.监督，监视( oversee的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• She oversees both the research and the manufacturing departments. 她既监督研究部门又监督生产部门。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Department of Education oversees the federal programs dealing with education. 教育部监管处理教育的联邦程序。 来自互联网

11 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。