比"非洲死神"埃博拉更可怕的是盲目恐懼

The deadliest Ebola outbreak in history that has so far killed almost 1000 people in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria in West Africa has sparked fear around the world.

最近，埃博拉病毒在幾內亞、利比亞、塞拉利昂和尼日利亞等西非國家肆虐，已造成1000多人死亡，是史上最嚴重的一次埃博拉大爆發，令全世界人心惶惶。

The outbreak is unprecedented both in infection numbers and in geographic scope. Officials from the World Health Organization (WHO) said earlier this month the outbreak “is moving faster than our efforts to control it”, reported CNN. So far, the battle against the virus doesn’t appear to be slowing down.

此次疫情感染人數之多，傳播範圍之廣都是前所未有的。本月上旬，世界衛生組織官員在CNN的報道中說，此次埃博拉“蔓延速度之快，已超出了我們的控制範圍。”截止今天，與埃博拉的鬥爭仍然刻不容緩。

The Ebola virus is terrifying no matter where it strikes: It’s a disease with no cure that causes headaches and fever, severe diarrhea, vomiting and bleeding and has been known to kill up to 90 percent of its victims.

不論在哪裏，埃博拉病毒都令人聞風喪膽，感染埃博拉病毒會導致頭痛、發熱、嚴重腹瀉、嘔吐以及出血；而它目前尚無治療方法，死亡率高達90%。

It is understandable for people to be panicked, but those living outside Africa shouldn’t be particularly concerned about contracting the virus, says a Washington Post article.

《華盛頓郵報》的一篇文章寫道：人們的恐慌是可以理解的，但是，身處非洲國家之外的人不必過於擔心自己會被感染。

This is because transmission of Ebola requires direct contact with an infected person’s blood, vomit or other bodily fluids during the period that he or she is contagious. It is something that is extremely unlikely for anyone but healthcare workers. The virus is not spread by coughing or sneezing.

這是因爲埃博拉是通過體液傳播的，只有直接接觸感染者的血液、嘔吐物或是其他體液纔可能被感染，而咳嗽、打噴嚏並不會傳染。由此看來，醫務工作者纔是最容易感染病毒的人。

Media outlets in the US and the UK are using terrifying headlines, wrongly claiming that people infected with the virus have traveled to their countries.

一些美國與英國媒體卻用聳人聽聞的標題，誤稱有感染者進入自己國家境內。

Too early to panic

恐慌過早

James Ball at The Guardian says the Ebola outbreak in Africa is tragic, but it is important to keep a sense of proportion. Other infectious diseases, including common influenza, are far, far deadlier.

來自《衛報》的詹姆斯?鮑爾說，埃博拉在非洲爆發確實情況慘烈，但是大家保持鎮定同樣重要。相較而言，其他一些傳染性疾病，甚至普通的流感在蔓延期間遠遠比埃博拉更加致命。

Ball points out that since the Ebola outbreak began in February, around 300,000 people have died from malaria, while tuberculosis has likely claimed more than 600,000 lives. Ebola is not even close to being the biggest problem in Africa right now.

鮑爾指出，自今年2月埃博拉在非洲爆發以來，30萬人死於瘧疾，60萬人死於肺結核，埃博拉現在甚至並不是非洲最嚴重的問題。

Ball says the most real effect for millions of people reading about Ebola will be fear and stigma.

而它造成最現實的影響卻是讓成千上萬人看到“埃博拉”一詞，就心生恐懼，令一些人爲此背上污名。。

During the SARS outbreak of 2003, Asian-Americans were stigmatized, with public health hotlines inundated with calls from Americans worried about “buying Asian merchandise”, “living near Asians” and “going to school with Asians”.

2003年“非典”爆發之時，亞裔美國人就備受歧視，美國公共醫療熱線每天都會接到人們的電話，擔心“買了亞洲商品”、“鄰居是亞洲人”或是“要和亞洲人一起上學”。

Similarly, in this Ebola outbreak, quite a few people hope their governments will shut off all travel to West Africa and forbid citizens in the infected regions to return to their countries. Panic and ignorance has even prompted some US politicians to suggest that migrant children attempting to enter the US from Central America may be carrying the virus, reported Salon.

無獨有偶，在此次埃博拉疫情爆發期間，很多人希望本國政府能禁止任何人去往西非，同時不允許從疫區回來的本國公民回國。《沙龍》雜誌報道，一些被恐懼和冷漠衝昏頭腦的美國政客甚至認爲那些從中美洲前往美國的移民子女也可能攜帶埃博拉病毒。

In the coming months, says Ball, almost none of us will catch the Ebola virus. Many of us, though, will suffer from fevers, headaches, shivers and other symptoms of illness.

鮑爾還說，在接下來的幾個月裏，很多人也許都會有發燒、頭痛、顫慄以及其他疾病症狀，但是幾乎不會有人真的感染埃博拉病毒

As communities are stigmatized and mildly sick people fear for their lives, Ball says, it’s worth reflecting what the biggest threat to our collective well-being is: rare tropical diseases, or the media’s terrible coverage of them.

而鮑爾認爲，有些居民已爲此背上了污名，還有的人即使有輕微症狀也會擔心爲此喪命，因此，我們要深思：究竟是當下對人類共同幸福最大的威脅，是這種罕見的熱帶傳染病，還是媒體聳人聽聞的報道？