With its long and devastating history,the Ebola virus is truly terrifying.Just the words"plague"or"black death"are enough to strike fear into the hearts of many.Outbreaks of the plague were common for centuries,resulting in millions of deaths.
埃博拉病毒有着悠久而毁灭性的历史,确实令人恐惧。仅仅是"瘟疫"或"黑死病"这样的字眼就足以让许多人心生恐惧。几个世纪以来,瘟疫的爆发很常见,导致数百万人死亡。
More recent outbreaks have generally been contained to distant African countries and the risk of an outbreak in developed countries is generally considered to be low.Certainly,though there have been reported cases of Ebola in the United States,very few Americans would consider their country to be a potential outbreak site.
最近的疫情一般被控制在遥远的非洲国家,发达国家发生疫情的风险一般被认为很低。当然,尽管美国已经报告了埃博拉病例,但很少有美国人会认为他们的国家是一个潜在的爆发地点。
Nonetheless,the risk may be considerably higher than most of us think.Governments around the world house diseases like Ebola in biological warfare weapons development laboratories.
尽管如此,风险可能比我们大多数人想象的要高得多。世界各国政府在生物战武器开发实验室中存放着埃博拉病毒等疾病。
Strict safety protocols should ensure that these facilities are super safe,but when these protocols are not followed or newly developed procedures are not implemented,the potential exists for these deadly bugs to escape into the environment.
严格的安全协议应该确保这些设施是超级安全的,但是如果这些协议没有得到遵守,或者新开发的程序没有得到执行,这些致命的漏洞就有可能泄漏到环境中。
As reported by the U.K.'s Daily Mail,the U.S.government recently shut down the Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick,which develops biological warfare agents.
据英国媒体报道美国政府最近关闭了位于德特里克堡的陆军传染病医学研究所,该研究所开发生物战剂。
Officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC)who inspected the facility in June determined that it failed to meet the necessary biosafety level 3 and 4 operating standards.
美国疾病控制和预防中心(CDC)的官员在6月份视察了该设施,发现该设施未能达到必要的3级和4级生物安全操作标准。
The history of the plague
瘟疫的历史
As reported by the CDC,outbreaks of the plague have been taking place for thousands of years.Some scholars believe that it even played a part in the fall of the Roman Empire,when Roman soldiers brought it back home from the Persian Gulf in 165 A.D.The CDC explained:
据疾病控制和预防中心报告,鼠疫的爆发已经持续了数千年。一些学者认为,它甚至在罗马帝国的衰落中起到了一定作用,公元165年,罗马士兵将它从波斯湾带回了家。疾控中心解释说:
Numerous references in art,literature and monuments attest to the horrors and devastation of past plague epidemics.We now know that plague is caused by a bacterium called Yersinia pestis that often infects small rodents(like rats,mice,and squirrels)and is usually transmitted to humans through the bite of an infected flea.
艺术、文学和纪念碑中的大量参考资料证实了过去瘟疫流行的恐怖和破坏。我们现在知道,鼠疫是由一种称为鼠疫耶尔森菌的细菌引起的,这种细菌通常感染小型啮齿动物(如大鼠、老鼠和松鼠),通常通过被感染的跳蚤叮咬而传染给人类。
In the past,black rats were the most commonly infected animals and hungry rat fleas would jump from their recently-dead rat hosts to humans,looking for a blood meal.Pneumonic plague,a particular form of plague infection,is instead transmitted through infected droplets in a sick person's cough.
在过去,黑老鼠是最常被感染的动物,饥饿的老鼠跳蚤会从它们最近死去的老鼠宿主跳到人类身上,寻找一顿血餐。肺鼠疫是鼠疫感染的一种特殊形式,是通过患者咳嗽中受感染的飞沫传播的。
The"Justinian Plague,"which took place in the Mediterranean basin over a 200-year period from 541 A.D.,claimed around 25 million lives.The second pandemic,known as the"Black Death,"originated in China and spread to Europe via the great trade routes,eventually killing 60 percent of the entire European population.
"查士丁尼瘟疫"发生在地中海盆地,从公元541年开始,历时200年,夺去了大约2500万人的生命。第二次大流行,被称为"黑死病",起源于中国,通过大贸易路线传播到欧洲,最终杀死了整个欧洲人口的60%。
More recently,the"Modern Plague"originated in China in the 1860s,and was carried to seaports across the globe by rats hiding out on steamships.Though this particular pandemic was quickly controlled,it allowed the disease to spread and become endemic in countries around the world.
最近,"现代瘟疫"起源于19世纪60年代的中国,通过藏在轮船上的老鼠传播到世界各地的海港。虽然这种特殊的流行病很快得到了控制,但它使这种疾病得以传播,并在世界各国流行起来。
The Fort Detrick shutdown
德特里克堡关闭
Fort Detrick was one of just a few American laboratories authorized to study Tier 1 agents like Ebola,which are considered to pose a serious threat to public health and safety.
德特里克堡是仅有的几个被授权研究埃博拉等一级病毒的美国实验室之一,这些病毒被认为对公共健康和安全构成严重威胁。
The facility had been struggling for over a year to improve its decontamination processes after a flooding issue in May 2018,when the CDC issued its cease and desist notice in July this year.
在2018年5月的一次洪水之后,疾病控制中心在今年7月发布了停止并终止预防控制中心的通知,当时该设施已经努力改善其净化过程一年多了。
The Frederick News Post reported:
弗雷德里克新闻邮报报道:
The suspension was due to multiple causes,including failure to follow local procedures and a lack of periodic recertification training for workers in the biocontainment laboratories.…The wastewater decontamination system also failed to meet standards set by the Federal Select Agent Program.
暂停是由于多种原因,包括未能遵守当地程序,以及缺乏对生物遏制实验室工作人员的定期再认证培训。污水净化系统也没有达到联邦选择代理程序设定的标准。
This is not the first time Fort Detrick has been accused of allowing diseases to escape into the environment.
这已经不是FortDetrick第一次被指责允许疾病向环境中扩散。
In her book,Bitten:The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons,journalist Kris Newby alleges that Lyme disease—a tick-born illness which now plagues the United States—was accidentally released into the environment by Fort Detrick researchers decades ago.
记者克里斯·纽比(Kris Newby)在她的书《被咬:莱姆病与生物武器的秘密历史》(bite:The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons)中声称,莱姆病是几十年前由德特里克堡(Fort Detrick)的研究人员意外释放到环境中的一种蜱源性疾病,目前正困扰着美国。
The CDC has placed all research at the facility on hold,and it will remain closed for the foreseeable future.
美国疾病控制与预防中心已经暂停了所有的研究工作,并且在可预见的未来仍将继续关闭。
来源:http://humansarefree.com/2019/08/gvt-shuts-down-us-bio-warfare-lab-warns.html