中國首例MERS患者背後的故事

On May 29, the Chinese public was put on alert by a notice issued by the National Health and Family Planning Commission.
5月29日，國家計生委的一條消息讓中國民衆警覺起來。

It was about China’s first case of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). The unnamed 44-year-old man who contracted the infectious disease is South Korean. He flew from Seoul to Hong Kong on May 26 after his father was diagnosed with the MERS, and then traveled to Huizhou, Guangdong province, ignoring instructions from doctors to stay at home, Xinhua reported.
這是關於中國首例（輸入性）中東呼吸綜合徵（MERS）患者的消息。據新華社報道，這位韓國籍患者今年44歲，在父親確診患MERS之後，不顧醫囑，於5月26日從首爾飛抵香港，隨後進入廣東省惠州市。

Currently hospitalized in Central Hospital in Huizhou, the man’s condition was worsening, yet his vital signs were stable. A total of 67 people who had been in close contact with the man in China had been quarantined, but another 10 had remained out of contact by Tuesday.
據悉，該男子已進入惠州市中心人民醫院接受治療，雖然病情尚未好轉，但各項生命體徵穩定。在中國，與該男子密切接觸的人中已有67人已被隔離，截止上週四仍有10名接觸者“失聯”。

The infected man’s insistence on traveling to China despite the opposition of his doctor has sparked criticism in South Korea and China, with lots of legal experts and members of the public asking to punish him.
該男子不顧醫生反對執意前往中國也引起了中韓雙方的譴責，很多法律專家和公衆都呼籲應嚴懲。

“Deliberately spreading infectious diseases and endangering public security is subject to civil and criminal laws in China,” Han Xiao, a lawyer with the Beijing-based Jingrun Law Firm, told The Beijing News.
在接受《新京報》採訪時，北京京潤律師事務所律師韓驍表示：“故意傳播傳染性疾病，危害公共安全已經違反了中國的民法與刑法。”

What is it?
MERS是什麼？

The MERS is a respiratory tract illness caused by the MERS coronavirus that was first discovered in Saudi Arabia in 2012, according to China Daily.
據《中國日報》報道，MERS是由一種新型冠狀病毒(MERS-CoV)引起的病毒性呼吸道疾病，這種病毒於2012年在沙特阿拉伯首次被發現。

The virus can lead to fevers, coughing, difficulty in breathing, pneumonia, kidney failure and death.
該病毒可能引起發熱、咳嗽、呼吸困難等症狀，導致肺炎、腎衰竭、甚至死亡。

The MERS is transmitted through close contact and respiratory droplets. Patients with diabetes, kidney failure, chronic lung and immune problems are the highest at-risk groups. The source of the virus remains unclear, but some suspect it comes from camels.
MERS可通過密切接觸以及飛沫傳播。糖尿病、腎衰、慢性肺炎以及免疫系統疾病患者都是該疾病的高危人羣。雖然MERS病毒的來源尚不完全清楚，但是，一些研究懷疑駱駝是來源之一。

By May, 1,150 MERS cases had been reported in over 20 countries, including Saudi Arabia, the UK, France, Malaysia and the US, The Beijing News reported.
據《新京報》報道，截至今年5月（16日），全球共有20多個國家報告總計1150例MERS病例，包括沙特阿拉伯、英國、法國、馬來西亞以及美國。

MERS is considered deadlier than SARS, which killed hundreds of people in Asia in 2003, and there is currently no vaccine or treatment plan for the virus. Of the infected, 431 people have died, which means the fatality rate stands at 37.5 percent, three times that of SARS, said Wang Linghang, an expert with Beijing Ditan Hospital.
2003年SARS在亞洲奪去了成百上千人的生命，而MERS的致死率比SARS還要高，而且目前還沒有可用的疫苗和藥物治療方法。北京地壇醫院的專家王凌航表示：在被感染者中，目前已有431人死亡，由此可見MERS的致死率達37.5%，是SARS的三倍。

No need to panic
無需恐慌

There is good news, though, which is that the MERS is less infectious than SARS. “The MERS has been around for three years, but there has been no massive outbreak, and only sporadic cases were reported,” Wang said.
慶幸的是，MERS的傳染性要低於SARS。王凌航同時表示：“MERS出現已有3年之久，但是並沒有大面積爆發過，只有零星的病例確診。”

“As lots of cases were reported in regions with poor medical resources, the current fatality rate does not represent the whole picture,” he said.
“加之很多病例出現在醫療條件較差的地區，因此當前的致死率也不能代表全部情況。”

He cited SARS as an example. “At the early stages of the SARS outbreak, the fatality rate was high, but after research and treatment, it dropped.”
王凌航還以SARS爲例，他說：“（就像）SARS，爆發初期致死率居高不下，但是隨着研究和治療，死亡率逐漸降低。”

Better news is also on the way. China has developed some experimental drugs to fight the virus, which, however, are not ready to be put into clinical use, The Beijing News reported.
好消息接踵而至，據《新京報》報道：中國已研製出一些（治療性抗體和多肽）實驗藥物，但目前還無法應用於臨牀。