2020年经济学人 Covid-19的多副面孔(1)（在线收听）

According to England's National Health Service the signs

根据英国国民医疗服务体系，

that someone has contracted the novel coronavirus SARS-COV-2 are a high temperature or a new, continuous cough.

感染新型冠状病毒SARS-COV-2的迹象为高烧或持续性咳嗽。

This is certainly true for a majority of patients, but it is not so for a sizeable minority.

大部分患者确实如此，但对少数患者来说，却并非如此。

Papers published in recent weeks present the new virus as having many faces.

近几周发表的论文称这种新病毒有多副面孔。

This is in stark contrast to the way in which influenza, another primarily respiratory disease, behaves—

这与另一种主要呼吸道疾病——流感的表现方式形成了鲜明对比——

and it makes SARS-COV-2 all the more dangerous. It also raises the question of why this virus's symptoms are so protean.

并且这使得SARS-COV-2更加危险。其还引发了一个问题——为什么这种病毒的症状如此千变万化。

For decades, influenza has been referred to as "an unvarying disease caused by a varying virus"

几十年来，流感一直被称为“一种由易变病毒所引起的不变的疾病”

because of its tendency to mutate every year and yet still cause the same symptoms of rapid-onset fever, malaise, headaches and coughing.

因为流感每年都有变异的趋势，但所引起的症状都是相同的：突然高烧、乏力、头疼和咳嗽。

Indeed, a review of influenza papers published in 2018 by John Paget of the Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research,

确实，2018年由荷兰卫生服务研究所的John Paget发表的一篇关于流感的论文综述表明，

showed that even when all of the different influenza types (A or B) and subtypes (H1N1, H3N2, etc) were analysed,

即便对所有的流感类型（A型或B型）以及其子类型（H1N1、H3N2等）进行了分析，

there were few differences in the ways they presented clinically. Literature on SARS-COV-2 suggests, by contrast, that this virus is a master of disguise.

它们的临床表象还是存在些许不同。相比之下，关于SARS-COV-2的文献表明，这种病毒是伪装的高手。

For example, Anthony DeBenedet, a doctor at St Joseph Mercy Health System in Michigan,

例如，密歇根圣约瑟慈善医疗系统的医生Anthony DeBenedet

reports in the American Journal of Gastroenterology that in early March,

在《美国胃肠病学杂志》报道，

following a trip down the Nile, a 71-year-old woman arrived at his emergency department with bloody diarrhoea.

三月初尼罗河之旅后，一名71岁的女性因出血性腹泻来到他的急诊室。

She suffered with this condition for five days, while also experiencing abdominal pains and nausea.

她的这种情况持续了5天，同时还伴有腹痛和恶心。

But her temperature was normal and her breathing good, so COVID-19 was not suspected.

但是她的体温正常，呼吸顺畅，所以没有怀疑是COVID-19。

Yet when he and his colleagues examined samples of her stools for signs of the sorts of bacterial infections that are likely to be picked up in Egypt, they found none.

然而，当他和他的同事对她的粪便样本进行检查，以寻找可能在埃及发现的各种细菌感染的迹象时，他们没有发现任何迹象。

They also saw no beneficial effects from the antibiotics they were administering.

他们发现使用抗生素也没有任何有益的效果。

They therefore started to wonder whether something else might be going on.

因此，他们开始怀疑是否还有其他原因。

It was only on the fourth day of the woman's stay at the hospital, her ninth day of illness, when she developed a cough,

直到这位女士入院第四天，患病第九天的时候，她出现了咳嗽的症状，

that they tested her for SARS-COV-2 and confirmed the virus's presence in both her nasal tissues and her stools.

这时他们才对她进行SARS-COV-2检测，并确认该病毒存在于她的鼻腔组织和粪便中。

Dr DeBenedet's findings are far from unique.

DeBenedet医生的发现并非特例。