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贫穷加剧了埃博拉疫情蔓延

Ebola spreads through contact with the blood and fluids of infected people. But experts say the outbreak is also being fueled by poverty and poor governance.

埃博拉病毒通过血液和体液接触进行传播。然而专家说，贫穷与管理不善也加剧了疫情的蔓延。

In West Africa, they are literally¹ building the facilities to handle Ebola from scratch.  Improvised tents house quarantined Ebola patients.

在西非，人们从无到有、兴建新设施，以应对埃博拉病毒。搭起的临时帐篷隔离了一部分埃博拉病患者。

Many hospitals in the region lack basic equipment, says Tulane University virus expert Dr. Daniel Bausch. He spoke² to VOA by Skype.

杜兰大学的病毒专家丹尼尔·鲍许说，该地区的许多医院缺乏最基本的医疗设备。他向记者阐述了自己的看法。

“You go to a hospital in Sierra Leone or Liberia, and it’s not unusual for a healthcare worker to say, ‘We don’t have gloves.’ Or, ‘We don’t have clean needles,'"said Bausch.

鲍许说：“在一所塞拉利昂或者是利比里亚的医院里，听到以下言论并不稀奇。一位医护人员会说“我们没有手套”，或者是“我们没有干净的针头”。”

Poor health systems plague the continent’s other Ebola hotspots, too. Bausch says there's a common factor.

落后的医疗系统也存在于非洲大陆上的其他疫情点。鲍许认为，制约因素是相同的。

“All of the large outbreaks of Ebola or its sister virus, Marburg, happen in places where social and political unrest over the years have decimated the public health system," he said.

鲍许说：“所有大规模的疫情暴发，如埃博拉和马尔堡病毒，都是发生于社会政治局势动荡多年、公共安全系统薄弱的国家。”

The war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo has seen six Ebola outbreaks.  Civil wars wrecked³ health systems in Sierra Leone and Liberia in the 90s and 2000s.

兵连祸结的刚果民主共和国已经六次暴发埃博拉疫情。同样，国内的战争分别于九十年代和二十世纪初摧残了塞拉利昂和利比里亚的医疗系统。

Meanwhile, working in neighboring Guinea, Bausch watched paved roads erode⁴ to dirt paths and towns slide deeper into poverty under the weight of dictatorship and corruption⁵.

与此同时，在临近的几内亚工作的鲍许目睹了该国在独裁统治与腐败的影响下，道路年久失修，城镇也逐渐滑向赤贫的深渊。

“That period of not-responsible government degraded the systems, public health and otherwise in Guinea, and I think did have a role in leaving the country open to this sort of epidemic," he said.

鲍许说： “政府的失职使得包括公共医疗在内的社会系统每况愈下，致使整个国家暴露于这一疫情的危险之中。”

Like the health systems, many people in Ebola-stricken regions lack the resources to get by. And that puts them at risk.

与卫生系统所类似，许多人在埃博拉肆虐的地区缺乏必要的资源以存活下来。这也让他们身处险地。

As they cut down forests for charcoal⁶ and to grow food, Bausch says they are driving the bats thought to carry the virus out into the open.

鲍许说，他们砍伐树林，以获取木炭、种植作物，招致了携带病毒的蝙蝠的到来。

“With deforestation, bats that ordinarily would be foraging⁷ for fruit within fairly remote areas inside the forest now are forced to come out and look for fruit, for example, mango trees that may be in the proximity⁸ of humans and bring them closer to humans and have more of a chance of introduction of the virus," said Bausch.

鲍许说：“随着森林砍伐的加剧，一向在远离人类居住区的森林觅食的蝙蝠，被迫逃离丛林。比如，距离人类较近的芒果树，使得人类与蝙蝠的接触几率提高，同时也提高了病毒的传播几率。”

And poverty is also driving people deeper into the forest in search of food, including so-called "bushmeat," which is known to carry the virus.

同时，贫穷也使人类在森林深处寻找食物，包括所谓的“丛林肉”，而后者正是传播疾病的元凶。

It doesn’t have to be this way, says Dr. William Karesh with the EcoHealth Alliance, also speaking via Skype.

来自生态健康联盟的威廉·卡瑞许说，其实事态原本不至于这样。

“You have outbreaks in Uganda and they have invested in their health systems and they have invested in their education systems. So, of course, they still have these outbreaks but they’re controlled very rapidly," said Karesh.

卡瑞许说：“在乌干达也有疫情。但他们在医疗和教育上做了投入。理所当然地，尽管有疫情，但是很快就得到了控制。”

Once this outbreak ends, Karesh says, health officials need to start preparing for the next one with better labs and hospitals, and more public information on how to prevent infection.

卡瑞许说，一旦这次疫情得到了控制，卫生官员需要着手提升实验室、医院和疾病预防知识宣传的水平，以备下一次疫情的到来。

“We can’t stop earthquakes, but we can prevent a lot of the damage of earthquakes. And it’s the same with these emerging diseases and Ebola," he said.

卡瑞许说： “我们不能阻止地震，但我们可以杜绝许多地震带来的危害。这同样适用于埃博拉和其他新型疾病。”

If governments invest in better education and healthcare systems, he says, the next outbreak could be less deadly.

他说，如果政府能够加大对教育和医疗的投入力度，下一次疫情就不会如此致命。