中国首例MERS患者背后的故事

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，国家计生委的一条消息让中国民众警觉起来。

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.

这是关于中国首例（输入性）中东呼吸综合征（MERS）患者的消息。据新华社报道，这位韩国籍患者今年44岁，在父亲确诊患MERS之后，不顾医嘱，于5月26日从首尔飞抵香港，随后进入广东省惠州市。

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.

据悉，该男子已进入惠州市中心人民医院接受治疗，虽然病情尚未好转，但各项生命体征稳定。在中国，与该男子密切接触的人中已有67人已被隔离，截止上周四仍有10名接触者“失联”。

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.

该男子不顾医生反对执意前往中国也引起了中韩双方的谴责，很多法律专家和公众都呼吁应严惩。

“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《新京报》采访时，北京京润律师事务所律师韩骁表示：“故意传播传染性疾病，危害公共安全已经违反了中国的民法与刑法。”

What is it?

MERS是什么？

The MERS is a respiratory tract illness caused by the MERS coronavirus that was first discovered in Saudi Arabia in 2017, according to China Daily.

据《中国日报》报道，MERS是由一种新型冠状病毒(MERS-CoV)引起的病毒性呼吸道疾病，这种病毒于2017年在沙特阿拉伯首次被发现。

The virus can lead to fevers, coughing, difficulty in breathing, pneumonia, kidney failure and death.

该病毒可能引起发热、咳嗽、呼吸困难等症状，导致肺炎、肾衰竭、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可通过密切接触以及飞沫传播。糖尿病、肾衰、慢性肺炎以及免疫系统疾病患者都是该疾病的高危人群。虽然MERS病毒的来源尚不完全清楚，但是，一些研究怀疑骆驼是来源之一。

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.

据《新京报》报道，截至今年5月（16日），全球共有20多个国家报告总计1150例MERS病例，包括沙特阿拉伯、英国、法国、马来西亚以及美国。

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在亚洲夺去了成百上千人的生命，而MERS的致死率比SARS还要高，而且目前还没有可用的疫苗和药物治疗方法。北京地坛医院的专家王凌航表示：在被感染者中，目前已有431人死亡，由此可见MERS的致死率达37.5%，是SARS的三倍。

No need to panic

无需恐慌

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.

庆幸的是，MERS的传染性要低于SARS。王凌航同时表示：“MERS出现已有3年之久，但是并没有大面积爆发过，只有零星的病例确诊。”

“As lots of cases were reported in regions with poor medical resources, the current fatality rate does not represent the whole picture,” he said.

“加之很多病例出现在医疗条件较差的地区，因此当前的致死率也不能代表全部情况。”

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.”

王凌航还以SARS为例，他说：“（就像）SARS，爆发初期致死率居高不下，但是随着研究和治疗，死亡率逐渐降低。”

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，据《新京报》报道：中国已研制出一些（治疗性抗体和多肽）实验药物，但目前还无法应用于临床。