紐時賞析／漢他雖非新冠 人們餘悸猶存

位於西北非外海的維德角共和國首都普萊亞港，醫護人員穿着防護裝備撤離宏迪斯號郵輪上的病患。（美聯社）

Hantavirus Is Bringing Some 'COVID PTSD'

漢他雖非新冠 人們餘悸猶存

Medical workers in protective suits. Contact tracing. PCR tests and World Health Organization briefings.

穿着防護衣的醫護人員、接觸者追蹤、PCR檢測，以及世界衛生組織的疫情簡報。

Just when much of the public had presumed to have left those ominous images and turns of phrase intertwined with the COVID-19 pandemic in the rearview mirror, a deadly hantavirus outbreak aboard a Dutch cruise ship has dredged up familiar anxieties.

就在大衆以爲那些與新冠肺炎疫情相關的陰鬱畫面和用語已逐漸淡出記憶之際，荷蘭一艘郵輪上爆發致命的漢他病毒疫情，重新勾起人們熟悉的焦慮。

Health experts, aware of the scars COVID left on people, including those who are still dealing with it, have sought to dispel comparisons between hantavirus and coronavirus. They said this week that the viruses spread quite differently and were not close in magnitude.

衛生專家意識到新冠肺炎在人們心中留下的傷痕，包括至今仍深受其擾者，努力淡化漢他病毒與冠狀病毒之間的類比。專家表示，兩種病毒的傳播方式大不相同，嚴重程度也相去甚遠。

Still, those reassurances have not quelled the public’s anxiety or its appetite for medical advice from some of the same doctors who commanded attention on television as COVID-19 marched across the globe.

然而，這些安撫未能消除公衆的焦慮，也未減弱衆人對醫療建議的渴求——尤其是來自那些在新冠疫情席捲全球時，曾在電視上備受矚目的醫師。

“I have COVID PTSD,” Dr. Celine R. Gounder, editor at large for public health at KFF Health News and an infectious disease expert, said in an interview on Thursday. “There are parts of New York City I cannot walk by without seeing the refrigerated mortuary trucks. I had to get rid of certain things I was using during the pandemic, clothing or otherwise, because it was triggering. So I completely get where people are coming from.”

「我有新冠創傷後壓力症候羣，」專業醫藥新聞平臺KFF Health News公共衛生新聞資深編輯、感染症專家席琳．岡德醫師表示。「現在只要走過紐約某些地方，我就會想起那些冷藏殯儀車。爲了避免觸發創傷反應，我必須丟掉疫情期間用過的衣物與物品。所以我完全理解人們現在的感受。」

“That said,” Gounder was swift to emphasize, “not all infectious diseases are created equal.”

「話雖如此，」岡德醫師迅速強調，「並非所有傳染病都是一樣的。」

Most strains of the virus, which is primarily carried by rodents, cannot be spread from person to person. But the one identified in the ship outbreak, the Andes strain, can move between people, according to medical experts, who underscored that it requires repeated close contact.

漢他病毒主要由囓齒類動物攜帶，大多數病毒株無法人傳人。但這次郵輪疫情中確認的安地斯病毒株可以人傳人，醫學專家強調，這需要反覆密切接觸纔會發生。

“This is not coronavirus,” Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s head of epidemic and pandemic preparedness, said at a news conference in Geneva on Thursday. “This is a very different virus.”

世界衛生組織流行病與大流行病防範與預防部門主任瑪麗亞．範科霍芙在日內瓦記者會上表示：「這不是冠狀病毒。這是完全不同的病毒。」

Van Kerkhove said she could understand the intense demand for answers about the cluster of infections.

範科霍芙表示，她能理解大衆迫切想知道這起羣聚感染狀況的心情。

“I want to be unequivocal here: This is not SARS-CoV-2,” she said, referring to the virus that causes COVID. “This is not the start of a COVID pandemic.”

她說：「我在此要以正視聽：這不是新型冠狀病毒，這不是新冠大流行的開始。」

Around the world, health authorities monitored suspected cases of hantavirus infection. A number of these potential patients tested negative. But the concerns were a reminder of how every allergy season sneeze or wheeze could prompt existential dread in the early months of the COVID pandemic.

世界各地衛生當局都在監測疑似漢他病毒感染的病例。其中一些潛在患者的檢測結果呈陰性。但這些擔憂提醒人們，在新冠疫情的早期，每一個過敏季的打噴嚏或喘鳴聲，都可能引發深層的不安與恐慌。」

文／Neil Vigdor，譯／國際中心