4-15 禽流感（在线收听）

The Bird Flu

Recently，the news has been filled with reports of the “bird flu.” Asia is on a region-wide health alert, with governments slaughtering millions of chickens to contain¹ outbreaks of the bird flu in Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, South Korea, Japan and China.

Influenza² -- commonly called “flu” -- is one of the oldest and most common diseases known to man. It can also be one of the deadliest. The great “Spanish flu” pandemic³ of 1918~1919 was considered the worst plague in history, killing up to 40 million people with half of the world’s population infected in only a few months.

Influenza can also infect many different warm-blooded animals, such as birds. However, the “flu” virus usually develops different variants that are specialized for each species of animal that they infect. Cross species infections are rare.

A flu strain called influenza A (H5N1) appears to have made a successful jump from birds to humans. The viral strain was first isolated from South African birds in 1961.the fist known human infection occurred in a Hong Kong toddler in May of 1997. By the end of 1997, there were 13 confirmed cases and four deaths, all in Hong Kong. In an attempt to stop the spread of the disease, the government of Hong Kong ordered the slaughter of all chickens, ducks, geese, quail⁴, and domestic pigeons.

Humans infected with H5N1 so far are thought to have caught the disease from fowl⁵ and no person-to-person transmissions have been reported. The WHO, however, fears that the bird flu is highly adaptable and might leap the species barrier. It says anyone exposed to the disease should be quarantined⁶ to avoid contact with sufferers of regular human influenza.

注释：

1.contain [kEn5tein] vt. 控制；遏制；阻止

2.influenza [5influ5enzE] n. [医] 流行性感冒，流感

3.pandemic [pAn5demik] n. 大流行病

4.quail [kweil] n. 鹌鹑

5.fowl [faul] n. [现仅用以构成复合词] 鸟；家禽

6.quarantine [5kwCrEnti:n] vt. （为防止传染病的流行而）将（人、畜、船等）隔离

禽流感

最近，新闻里充满了关于禽流感的报告，亚洲拉响了地区性的疾病预防警报。泰国、越南、柬埔寨、韩国、日本和中国政府下令宰杀了数百万只鸡，以遏制禽流感的蔓延。　

流行性感冒，俗称“流感”，是人类己知最古老、最常见的疾病之一，它同时也可能是最致命的一种疾病。1918年至1919年间“西班牙流感”的大爆发被认为是历史上最大的瘟疫，在短短几个月里导致了全世界一半的人口染病，多达4000万人死亡。

流感也可以感染许多不同种类的温血动物，例如鸟类。但是，流感病毒通常是针对不同种类的动物滋生出不同的变种病毒，跨物种传染的情况很少。

一种被称为甲型流感（H5N1）的病毒看来己经成功地从鸟类转移到了人类的身上。这种病毒1961年首次从南非的鸟类身上被分离出来。第一例己知的人类感染病例是1997年5月香港的一名幼儿。到1997年底，13起病例得到确诊，其中4人死亡，全都发生在香港。为了阻止该疾病的蔓延，香港政府下令杀了所有的鸡鸭鹅鹌鹑和家鸽。

至今为止人类感染H5N1的病例都被认为是从家禽传染的，人与人之间的传染尚无报告。但是，世界卫生组织担心禽流感病毒具有很强的适应能力，可能跨过物种的障碍传播，认为任何接触过该病的人应该隔离，避免与普通流感病人接触。