Ebola outbreak now third largest recorded and “spreading rapidly”

埃博拉疫情已成史上第三大，且正“迅速蔓延”

The Ebola outbreak erupting from the Ituri province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo continues to escalate wildly, with cases nearing 750, deaths reported at 177, and around 1,400 contacts now being traced, the World Health Organization reported in a press briefing Friday. 世界卫生组织在周五的新闻发布会上通报称，在刚果民主共和国伊图里省爆发的埃博拉疫情持续失控，病例数已接近750例，死亡人数达177人，目前约有1400名接触者正在接受追踪。

The latest numbers already place the outbreak as the third largest on record, though it was only first reported a week ago, on May 15. And WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the outbreak is still “spreading rapidly.” 尽管该疫情仅在一周前（5月15日）才首次报告，但最新数据已使其成为有记录以来的第三大埃博拉疫情。世卫组织总干事谭德塞表示，疫情目前仍在“迅速蔓延”。

A revised WHO assessment has moved the risk level from “high” to “very high” at the national level, while risk remains “high” at the regional level and “low” at the global level, Tedros added. 谭德塞补充说，世卫组织已将国家层面的风险评估从“高”上调至“极高”，区域层面风险维持在“高”，全球层面则保持在“低”。

WHO officials have acknowledged that a delay in detecting and responding to the outbreak enabled it to balloon, and that they are now racing to get ahead of the virus. WHO representative Dr. Anne Ancia spoke during today’s briefing from the DRC, saying that when officials got to the area, they found the virus was “already rampant and silently disseminating for a few weeks already.” 世卫组织官员承认，由于在发现和应对疫情方面存在延误，导致疫情迅速扩大，他们目前正争分夺秒地试图赶在病毒传播之前采取行动。世卫组织代表安妮·安西亚（Dr. Anne Ancia）医生在刚果民主共和国的简报会上表示，当官员们抵达该地区时，发现病毒“已经肆虐，并已悄无声息地传播了数周”。

In the outbreak investigation so far, the earliest known suspected case was in a health worker, who developed symptoms on April 24 in Bunia, the capital city of Ituri. WHO only got word of a potential outbreak on May 5, with news of a cluster of deadly, unidentified infections that led to the deaths of four health workers. By the time a WHO team arrived, there were already 80 cases. 在目前的疫情调查中，已知最早的疑似病例是一名医护人员，他于4月24日在伊图里首府布尼亚出现症状。世卫组织直到5月5日才收到有关潜在疫情的消息，当时有报道称出现了一组致命的、不明原因的感染，导致四名医护人员死亡。当世卫组织团队抵达时，病例数已达80例。

“Now we are sprinting behind [the virus] so that we can really try to control this outbreak, and because it is still transmitting for the time being, yes, the number [of cases] will keep rising for some time until we are really able to put all the response operation in place,” she said. 她说：“现在我们正拼命追赶（病毒），以便真正控制住疫情。由于目前病毒仍在传播，病例数在一段时间内还会继续上升，直到我们能够全面落实所有的应对措施。”

Their work is made harder by various challenges. The virus behind the Ebola outbreak is the uncommon Bundibugyo virus, which doesn’t have established vaccines or therapeutics. That leaves active case finding, isolation, and contact tracing as the primary tools to halt the spread. Moreover, the virus is spreading in areas with armed conflict, intense population mobility, weak health systems, and where millions face acute hunger and need humanitarian assistance. 他们的工作面临着各种挑战。此次埃博拉疫情背后的病毒是罕见的本迪布焦（Bundibugyo）病毒，目前尚无成熟的疫苗或治疗方法。因此，主动发现病例、隔离和接触者追踪成为遏制传播的主要手段。此外，病毒传播地区正处于武装冲突之中，人口流动频繁，卫生系统薄弱，且数百万人面临严重饥饿，急需人道主义援助。

Disease of compassion / 同情之病

As WHO and other partners scramble to prevent more deadly infections, public health experts in the US are criticizing the Trump administration’s role. The US had long been a global leader in Ebola responses in the region. But that is no longer the case given the Trump administration’s demolition of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), severe cuts to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, numerous public health leadership roles vacant, and complete withdrawal from the WHO. 在世卫组织及其他合作伙伴竭力防止更多致命感染的同时，美国公共卫生专家批评了特朗普政府的表现。美国长期以来一直是该地区埃博拉应对工作的全球领导者。但随着特朗普政府对美国国际开发署（USAID）的拆解、对疾病控制与预防中心（CDC）的大幅削减预算、大量公共卫生领导职位的空缺，以及完全退出世卫组织，这种情况已不复存在。

In a New York Times opinion piece Thursday, Craig Spencer—an emergency medicine doctor and Brown University professor, who contracted Ebola while treating patients in Guinea in 2014 with Doctors Without Borders—wrote that the US has “abdicated its longstanding role as a leader in global health and humanitarian response.” 周四，《纽约时报》刊登了急诊科医生、布朗大学教授克雷格·斯宾塞（Craig Spencer）的评论文章。他曾在2014年随“无国界医生”组织在几内亚治疗患者时感染埃博拉病毒。他写道，美国已经“放弃了其作为全球卫生和人道主义应对领导者的长期角色”。

“I know how destructive the disease can be—and how unprepared we are for its return,” he wrote. He noted reporting from the Times finding that the delay in detecting the outbreak was, in part, due to samples from infected patients being transported to a national lab in Kinshasa, Congo, at the wrong temperature. That task had previously been managed by USAID. “我知道这种疾病有多么可怕，也知道我们对它的卷土重来是多么缺乏准备，”他写道。他指出《纽约时报》的报道发现，疫情发现的延迟部分原因是感染患者的样本在运往刚果金沙萨国家实验室时温度不当。而这项任务此前一直由美国国际开发署负责。

The Times also reported that the US previously played a crucial role in logistics and delivering supplies, notably personal protective equipment, such as face shields, respirators, impermeable coveralls, and surgical hoods—supplies that health workers in DRC lacked for weeks at the start of the outbreak. 《纽约时报》还报道称，美国此前在物流和物资供应方面发挥了关键作用，特别是个人防护装备，如面罩、呼吸器、不透水防护服和手术头罩——这些物资在疫情初期，刚果民主共和国的医护人员曾连续数周短缺。

“My heart is breaking for those workers,” Megan Fotheringham, who was USAID’s deputy director of infectious diseases, including during the Ebola outbreak in Ituri between 2018 and 2020. “They are not protected, and they are putting their lives on the line.” She told the Times that if USAID was able to continue its work, it could have moved stockpiles of personal protective equipment within hours. “我为那些医护人员感到心碎，”曾在2018年至2020年伊图里埃博拉疫情期间担任美国国际开发署传染病副主任的梅根·福瑟林汉姆（Megan Fotheringham）说，“他们没有得到保护，却在冒着生命危险工作。”她告诉《纽约时报》，如果美国国际开发署能够继续其工作，本可以在数小时内调拨个人防护装备储备。

Spencer noted that he and others often refer to Ebola as a disease of compassion because it spreads via bodily fluids to those who have intimate contact with victims. “This means parents taking care of their sick children, family members who wash the bodies of their dead relatives, and health care providers who take care of patients at the most contagious stage of their illness,” he wrote. He recalled a family of seven being infected, with the parents caring for their children while battling the disease themselves, and only the parents survived. 斯宾塞指出，他和许多人常将埃博拉称为“同情之病”，因为它通过体液传播给那些与患者有亲密接触的人。“这意味着照顾生病孩子的父母、为死去的亲人清洗遗体的家庭成员，以及在患者传染性最强阶段照顾他们的医护人员，”他写道。他回忆起一个七口之家被感染的案例，父母在自己与疾病抗争的同时照顾孩子，最终只有父母幸存。

Panic and neglect / 恐慌与忽视

Epidemiologists Katelyn Jetelina and Emily Smith pointed out Friday that, while the disease is one spread by compassion, this outbreak seems to be spreading by “the global withdrawal of it.” 流行病学家凯特琳·杰特琳娜（Katelyn Jetelina）和艾米丽·史密斯（Emily Smith）周五指出，虽然这种疾病是通过同情心传播的，但此次疫情似乎正在因“全球同情心的缺失”而蔓延。

In a CDC press briefing Friday morning, Satish Pillai, incident manager for CDC’s Ebola response, said that the US is ramping up resources and sending more field staff to the outbreak area. The Trump administration has also said it is funding the establishment of up to 50 treatment clinics in Ebola-affected regions of the DRC and Uganda. But Uganda, which has only reported two imported cases from DRC, responded by saying it was “not aware” of any such plans. 在周五上午的CDC新闻发布会上，CDC埃博拉应对事件经理萨蒂什·皮莱（Satish Pillai）表示，美国正在增加资源，并向疫情地区派遣更多现场工作人员。特朗普政府还声称正在资助在刚果民主共和国和乌干达的埃博拉受灾地区建立多达50个治疗诊所。但仅报告了两例从刚果民主共和国输入病例的乌干达回应称，他们“并不知晓”任何此类计划。

Pillai again dodged questions on why an American doctor infected in the outbreak and another exposed were sent to Germany and the Czech Republic, respectively, and not to the US. He also skirted questions about the US’s travel restrictions, which have also been criticized by public health experts. With the US withdrawal from global health, the WHO has struggled to make up for the loss of funding and support. 皮莱再次回避了关于为何一名在疫情中感染的美国医生和另一名接触者分别被送往德国和捷克，而不是美国的问题。他还回避了关于美国旅行限制的问题，这些限制也受到了公共卫生专家的批评。随着美国退出全球卫生事务，世卫组织在弥补资金和支持损失方面举步维艰。