Did you know that there is a major Ebola outbreak(爆发，突然蔓延) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and it’s on track to(有望，很可能) be the deadliest ever? It is already the second-worst Ebola outbreak in history, with the fastest community transmission we have ever seen. It’s estimated that there have been at least 4,900 cases and more than 2,300 deaths, giving a mortality rate(死亡率) close to 50%. The situation is bad. That’s the consensus(共识，一致意见) among global health experts.
你知道吗？刚果民主共和国正在暴发一场严重的埃博拉疫情，而且它很可能成为有史以来最致命的一次。这已经是历史上第二严重的埃博拉疫情，其社区传播速度之快前所未有。据估计，至少有4900例感染病例，超过2300人死亡，死亡率接近50%。情况十分糟糕。这是全球卫生专家的共识。
Yet this Ebola outbreak isn’t attracting much media or public attention. If I compare it with working on the 2014 Ebola outbreak, the current silence is astounding(令人震惊的). That year, Ebola was one of the most Googled terms in the world, covered regularly on broadcast news in many countries outside the region, attracting newspaper headlines and magazine covers. Perhaps everyone is just tired of(对……感到厌倦) disease after the pandemic – Covid-19 fatigue(新冠疲劳：对疫情信息厌倦的社会现象), as it’s called. Trust me, no one wants to hear about infectious diseases.
然而，这次埃博拉疫情并没有引起多少媒体或公众的关注。如果与2014年埃博拉疫情时的工作相比，当前的沉默令人震惊。那一年，埃博拉是全球搜索量最高的词汇之一，该地区以外的许多国家的电视新闻定期报道，登上了报纸头条和杂志封面。也许在疫情之后，大家都对疾病感到厌倦了——这就是所谓的“新冠疲劳”。相信我，没有人想再听到传染病的事。
Unfortunately things are only getting worse in the region. A perfect storm(完美风暴，多种不利因素叠加) of factors is making the spread hard to contain, even more difficult to slow down – and the health impact is devastating(毁灭性的). One concerning factor is that most of the cases, and deaths, are happening in the community before patients even get to hospital: it’s estimated that local health workers are reaching only 30% of cases. Adding to the impact, children make up a quarter of confirmed cases(确诊病例), and almost a third of all deaths. And those are just the direct deaths from the Ebola virus: routine health services such as childhood vaccination campaigns against measles and basic child survival interventions have been disrupted, meaning a higher number of indirect deaths from lack of healthcare.(而这还只是埃博拉病毒造成的直接死亡：常规卫生服务，如针对麻疹的儿童疫苗接种运动和基本的儿童生存干预措施已被打乱，这意味着因缺乏医疗保健而导致的间接死亡人数会更高。)
不幸的是，该地区的情况只会越来越糟。多种因素构成的“完美风暴”使疫情难以遏制，更难以减缓——对健康的破坏是毁灭性的。一个令人担忧的因素是，大多数病例和死亡发生在社区，患者甚至还没到医院：据估计，当地卫生工作者只能接触到30%的病例。更严重的是，儿童占确诊病例的四分之一，几乎占所有死亡人数的三分之一。而这还只是埃博拉病毒造成的直接死亡：常规卫生服务，如针对麻疹的儿童疫苗接种运动和基本的儿童生存干预措施已被打乱，这意味着因缺乏医疗保健而导致的间接死亡人数会更高。