VOA常速英语:Influenza Virus Can Be Deadlier Than War

Each year scientists develop a flu vaccine that’s their best guess about what strain of the virus will circulate the following year.Sometimes they’re right and sometimes they’re wrong.
科学家们每年都研制出一种流感疫苗，这是他们对下一年病毒传播的最好猜测。有时他们是对的，有时他们也出错。

Even on a good year, the overall efficacy of an influenza vaccine is about 60%.So even though it is always better to get vaccinated against influenza than it is not to get vaccinated.No doubt about that---we need to get a better vaccine.
即使是在一个好年景，流行性感冒病毒疫苗的整体功效也在60%左右，即使接种流感疫苗总比不接种疫苗要好——毫无疑问——但是我们需要疗效更好的疫苗。

Several years ago, the flu vaccines effectiveness was a dismal 10%,other vaccines like those form measles and yellow fever are almost completely effective and 90% of those vaccinated for polio are protected from the disease.
几年前，流感疫苗的效果是令人沮丧，只有10%的功效，但其他疫苗像麻疹和黄热病的几乎完全有效，90%的接种脊髓灰质炎疫苗的人也免受这种疾病的影响。

Even those who make flu vaccines are dissatisfied. The disease we’re trying to prevent is very prevalent.Up to 20% of us will have an influenza infection during the course of a year.Better treatment now exists for complications from the flu like pneumonia but doctors are concerned that we are vulnerable for a deadly pandemic like the one in 1918 that killed 50 million people worldwide.Despite all the medical advances in the past 100 years, could something like that happen again?
甚至那些制造流感疫苗的人也不满意。我们试图预防的疾病太过流行性了，在一年中，多达20%的人会感染流感。对于流感性肺炎的并发症，现在已经有了更好的治疗方法，但是医生们担心我们面对疾病时会过于脆弱，就像1918年世界上有5000万人死亡的流行病那样。尽管在过去的100年里医学上取得了很大进步，这种情况还会再次发生吗？

Certainly we’ve had a flu pandemic in 2009, the H1N1 swine flu that was not a serious epidemic in the sense of a lot of deaths.It was a pandemic to be sure because it was a relatively new virus. There was widespread infection throughout the world.
当然，我们在2009年爆发了流感，H1N1猪流感，但在死亡人数方面这并不算一个很严重的全球流行病。但可以肯定的说，这属于流行病的范畴，因为它是一种相对新型的病毒引起的，世界范围内传染很广。

There is a part of the influenza virus that does not change from year to year,so researchers have a sense of urgency in developing a universal vaccine that targets that part of the virus.
有一部分流感病毒不会每年发生变化，因此研究人员有一种紧迫感，即研制一种针对该病毒部分的通用疫苗。

Most influenza deaths occur in developing countries and very few vaccinations occur there.Until the universal influenza vaccine is available, more lives can be saved if more people start getting the imperfect seasonal flu vaccine.Not only can this prevent the spread of the virus but it lowers the risk of a deadly pandemic like the one in 1918.
大多数流感死亡发生在发展中国家，但那里的居民很少接种疫苗。如果在通用流行性感冒病毒疫苗研制出之前，更多的人开始接种不完全季节性流感疫苗的话，就会有更多的生命得到挽救。这不仅可以防止病毒的传播，还可以降低像1918年一样的致命全球流行病的风险。

Carol Pearson, VOA News, Washington.
美国之音，Carol Pearson华盛顿报道。