VOA慢速英语:Health Report--The H7N9 bird flu virus

A World Health Organization official says a new strain of avian influenza is unusually dangerous for people.
世界卫生组织一名官员称，新型禽流感病毒对人类异常危险。

Keiji Fakuda is the WHO's assistant director-general for health security and environment. He spoke to reporters in Beijing last week about the H7N9 bird flu virus. As of Monday, the virus had killed at least 24 people on the Chinese mainland. The country has recorded more than 120 cases of the disease.
Keiji Fakuda是世卫组织卫生安全和环境助理总干事，他上周在北京对记者谈到H7N9禽流感。截至周一，该病毒已经在中国大陆造成至少24人死亡。该国已录得超过120起病例。

The WHO sent a team of specialist to China last month to learn more about the H7N9 virus. Doctor Fakuda said there is still not enough evidence to show it can spread easily from person to person.
世卫组织上月向中国派出专家小组以了解H7N9禽流感，Fakuda博士说，目前尚没有足够证据表明这种病毒能够轻易地在人际间传播。

 "When we look at the influence of viruses, this is unusually dangerous virus for humans...Based on the evidence that we see we think that this virus is more easily transmitted from poultry to humans than H5N1."
“当我们观察这个对人类非常危险的流感病毒时，基于我们所看到的证据，我们认为这种病毒比H5N1更容易通过家禽传播到人身上。”

The H5N1 bird flu virus first appeared in 2003, it has killed more than half of the 622 people it has infected. WHO and Chinese officials say the effort to understand the new virus is still early.
H5N1型禽流感最早出现于2003年，造成622名感染者中超过半数人死亡。世卫组织和中国官方称要了解清楚这种新病毒还为时稍早。

Lian Wanliang is with National Health and Family Planning Commission, he says the public health risk from the virus is not yet known. Chinese and WHO scientists all agree that birds infected by the H7N9 virus are the likely causes of human infection. Most of these birds are poultry, like chickens.
Lian Wanliang就职于国家卫生和计划生育委员会，他说尚不清楚这种病毒的公共卫生风险。中国和世卫组织科学家都认为，感染H7N9的鸟类可能引起人类感染，其中多数是家禽，比如鸡。

The majority of deaths and infections from the virus have been reported in Shanghai. Officials there and in other cities have closed down market for live poultry is sold.
这种禽流感的死亡和感染病例多在上海，当地和其他城市的官方已经关闭出售家禽的市场。

Anne Kelson directs the WHO Flu Research center in Melbourne, Australia. She says the market closings appear to be helping.
Anne Kelson是世卫组织驻澳大利亚墨尔本流感研究中心负责人，她说关闭市场显然有效果。

"Now we know that Shanghai rapidly on April 6 closed down their poultry markets in that municipality and it's been very encouraging to see that almost immediately there was a decline in the detection of the new cases and the cases that did occur all occurred in the next week, which you might expect to be within the incubation period of the virus."
“目前我们知道，上海在4月6日迅速关闭了市区的家禽市场，令人鼓舞的是新发现的禽流感病例几乎立即减少，所有出现的病例都是在接下来一周出现的，也就是病毒的潜伏期内，这一点令人欣慰。”

She says close observation of the effect of these closures should continue over the next several weeks and months.
她说应在未来数周和数月内继续密切关注关闭市场的效果。

Chinese officials say more than half of those infected have been individuals who had direct contact with poultry or other birds, how the other people became infected with the virus is unclear. The government has carried out thousands of tests on birds but only a small percentage were infected.
中国官方称感染者中有一半以上是直接接触过家禽或其他鸟类的个人，至于其他人是如何感染的尚不清楚。政府已经对禽鸟进行了上千次检测，但只有很小一部分被感染。