纽约时报中文网 - 中英对照版-中英中国出现儿童肺炎感染潮WHO要求提供更多信息

The World Health Organization has formally requested that China share detailed information about a recent increase in respiratory illnesses, citing unconfirmed media reports of undiagnosed pneumonia in children.

世界卫生组织援引未经证实的关于未确诊的儿童肺炎聚集病例的媒体报道，正式要求中国分享有关呼吸道疾病近期增加的详细信息。

China has been reporting a jump in respiratory illnesses for months. Chinese media reports have described long lines at pediatric hospitals, and doctors have said that this year’s wave appeared to be more severe than those of previous years.

中国已连续几个月通报了近期呼吸道疾病发病率上升的情况。中国的媒体报道称，儿童医院排起了长队，医生们说，今年的呼吸道疾病高发季节似乎比往年更严重。

Chinese officials have attributed the illnesses to known pathogens such as influenza, SARS-CoV-2 — the virus behind the coronavirus pandemic — and mycoplasma pneumoniae, a common bacterium that typically causes mild illness in children.

中国官员将这些疾病归因于已知病原体，例如流感、引发新冠病毒大流行的SARS-CoV-2，以及由一种通常在儿童中导致轻度疾病的常见细菌引起的支原体肺炎。

But some news and social media reports have described crowds of children at hospitals with pneumonia, without specifying the exact cause of illness. On Wednesday, the W.H.O. requested more information from China.

但据一些新闻和社交媒体报道，医院里出现了儿童肺炎聚集病例，这些报道未具体说明患病的确切原因。周三，世界卫生组织要求中国提供更多的信息。

“It is unclear if these are associated with the overall increase in respiratory infections previously reported by Chinese authorities, or separate events,” the W.H.O., a United Nations agency, said in a statement Thursday.

“目前尚不清楚这是否与卫健委之前报告的呼吸道感染病例总体增加有关，还是单独发生的事件，”这家联合国机构在周三的声明中表示。

During both the outbreak of SARS in 2003 and the coronavirus pandemic that began in 2020, China’s surveillance and reporting of infectious diseases drew global scrutiny and criticism. Both times, officials covered up early cases, and stonewalled requests from health officials overseas, including the W.H.O., for more information and access to patient data.

在2003年SARS暴发以及2020年新冠病毒大流行之初，中国有关传染病的监测和通报曾引起全球的严格审视和批评。中国官员们在那两次疫情期间都掩盖了早期病例，并阻碍了海外卫生官员，包括世卫组织的官员对分享更多信息和患者数据的要求。

Several experts said in interviews that the current rise in cases might not be cause for concern, noting that further testing could illuminate the reasons for the apparently undiagnosed cases. But they acknowledged that many around the world were on higher alert toward reports from China.

几名专家在接受采访时表示，或许无需担忧目前呼吸道疾病病例增加的问题，并指出，进一步的检测可能会解释清楚尚未确诊病例的病因。但他们承认，世界各地的许多人已对来自中国的报道处于高度戒备状态。

“Definitely, there is concern about transparency from China,” said Raina MacIntyre, a professor of global biosecurity at the University of New South Wales in Australia. “Given the history of what happened with Covid, I think W.H.O. decided to get on the front foot, which is a good thing, and request information from China now.”

“毫无疑问，人们对中国的透明度感到担忧，”澳大利亚新南威尔士大学全球生物安全教授雷娜·麦金泰尔说。“考虑到新冠疫情的历史，我认为世卫组织决定先行一步，现在就要求中国提供进一步信息，是一件好事。”

The W.H.O. said it had requested laboratory results from the reported clusters among children, as well as more details about the current burden on health care systems. It said it was also in touch with clinicians and scientists through its networks in China.

世卫组织称已要求中国提供更多详细信息，包括媒体报道中提到的儿童聚集病例的实验室诊断结果，以及目前对卫生保健系统造成的负担，并表示正在通过其在中国的技术合作伙伴及网络与临床医生和科学家保持联系。

One of the news reports, by an outlet in Taiwan, was also shared on ProMED, a disease tracking site run by the International Society for Infectious Diseases, which highlighted some of the earliest reports of the 2003 SARS virus and SARS-CoV-2.

其中一篇被国际传染病学会运营的新发疾病监测规划(ProMED)分享的报道来自一家台湾媒体，该报道重温了有关2003年SARS病毒以及2020年SARS-CoV-2病毒的一些最早的报道。

Chinese officials have not publicly acknowledged concerns about unknown pathogens this time, and have not publicly responded to the W.H.O. statement. In domestic media, they have urged calm about the surge in respiratory illnesses, saying the increase is due in part to the lifting of China’s three years of strict coronavirus restrictions.

中国官员没有公开承认对未知病原体的担忧，也尚未对世卫组织声明的要求作出公开回复。官员们在国内媒体的报道中呼吁人们对呼吸道疾病的激增保持冷静，称激增的部分原因是中国取消了曾严格执行三年的“新冠清零”政策。

Those restrictions had kept many other infectious diseases that normally circulate in the winter at bay, making the current surge feel more dramatic, when in fact it is normal, Tong Zhaohui, the director of Beijing’s Institute of Respiratory Disease, said at a news conference hosted by China’s National Health Commission on Nov. 13.

在国家卫生健康委员会11月13日举行的新闻发布会上，北京市呼吸疾病研究所所长童朝晖表示，遏制新冠疫情的措施也防止了许多其他通常在冬季传播的急性呼吸道疾病，让人们觉得今年这些疾病好像增加了，但今年的发病率其实是正常的。

The National Health Commission has not released overall statistics about the surge in illness. But at one children’s hospital in Anhui Province, doctors performed 67 bronchoscopies in one day, compared with 10 on a normal day, according to a report by the local government. State-run media in the city of Hangzhou, in eastern China, reported that outpatient pediatric visits at one hospital had tripled from last year, when the Covid restrictions were still in place. About 30 to 40 percent of those children had been diagnosed with mycoplasma pneumoniae, the article said.

国家卫健委尚未公布呼吸道疾病病例增加的总体统计。但据一个地方政府发布的信息，安徽一家儿童医院的医生在最高峰时，一天就做了67例支气管镜检查，而在正常情况下，平均一天只做10例。中国东部城市杭州的官媒报道称，当地一家医院的儿科门诊量与去年实行新冠疫情限制措施时相比增加了两倍。该报道称，就诊儿童中有约30%到40%被确诊患有支原体肺炎。

The appearance of undiagnosed pneumonia cases is not in and of itself a sign of a new pathogen, said Professor MacIntyre, at the University of New South Wales. Pneumonia-like symptoms are fairly common, and whether their causes are diagnosed often depends on the surveillance and testing systems in their home countries, she said.

未确诊肺炎病例的出现本身并不意味着出现了新的病原体，新南威尔士大学的麦金泰尔说。她表示，类似肺炎的症状相当常见，病因是否得到确诊通常取决于发病国家的监测和检测系统。

In other countries, infectious diseases besides the coronavirus also spiked after the authorities lifted pandemic restrictions. It is possible that the same is happening in China, especially as there is evidence that prior infection with the coronavirus makes people more susceptible to other diseases. Chinese doctors have said patients in this round appear to have mixed infections, or drug-resistant ones, which may be making symptoms worse.

其他国家的政府取消了新冠病毒限制措施后，除了冠状病毒感染增加外，其他传染病的感染也出现过激增。中国可能也在发生同样的情况，尤其是有证据表明，以前感染过新冠病毒会使人更容易感染其他疾病。中国的医生们表示，这波患者中混合感染或耐药的较多，这可能会导致病情恶化。

The key, Professor MacIntyre said, is testing the children who are sick in China, and either confirming or ruling out known causes.

麦金泰尔说，关键是中国要对患儿进行检测，以确定或排除已知病原体。

“If diagnostic testing is repeatedly negative, that would point towards a novel pathogen,” she said.

“如果对已知病原体的检测都呈阴性的话，那就表明存在一种新的病原体，”她说。

Concern appears to be high among many parents in China, who have crowded hospitals despite experts urging them to seek treatment at smaller clinics or stay at home for milder cases. Photos shared with The New York Times from a hospital in Beijing showed a child lying with a woman on the floor, and long lines in a lobby.

中国许多家长似乎颇为担忧，尽管专家呼吁他们让病情较轻的儿童呆在家中或去规模小一些的社区医院，但家长们还是把大医院挤满。《纽约时报》看到的北京某医院的照片显示，一个孩子和一名女子在医院席地而坐，挂号窗口排起长龙。

Wu Si, the mother of a three-year-old boy, said she waited more than eight hours when she brought him to Beijing Children’s Hospital on Nov. 2 after he developed a low fever and a cough. He was later diagnosed with mycoplasma pneumonia.

三岁男童的母亲吴思（音）说，11月2日，她带着有低烧、咳嗽等症状的孩子来到北京儿童医院，等了八个多小时才看上病。孩子后来被确诊支原体肺炎。

“It was crazy,” Ms. Wu said of the wait. She said that she wanted to know whether the surge was because people’s immunity had been weakened during the coronavirus pandemic. “If this happens every year, parents won’t be able to take it.”

“很抓狂，”吴女士谈到等待的过程时说。她说，她想知道患者激增是不是因为人们的免疫力在新冠疫情期间减弱了。 “如果每年都这样搞一次的话，家长受不了的。”

Jin Dongyan, a virologist at the University of Hong Kong, said the Chinese government should quickly share more data to back up its claim that the current wave was not more severe than in the years before the pandemic.

香港大学病毒学家金东雁说，中国政府应该立刻分享更多数据来支持今年的呼吸道疾病发病率不比新冠疫情前的几年更严重的说法。

“By our professional judgment, it might not be a very big deal, everything is well-expected,” Professor Jin said of the surge in sickness, pointing to the similar phenomena elsewhere.

“据我们的专业判断，这可能不是什么大问题，一切都在意料之中，”金东雁在谈到呼吸道疾病激增时说，他指出其他地方发生过类似情况。

But “people are more sensitive, people are overreacting,” he said. “The only thing to do is tell people the truth.”

但“大家已更敏感，大家正在过度反应”，他说。“唯一能做的就是把真相告诉大家。”