Zoonoses are human diseases of animal origin. Bats world-wide harbour a greater proportion of viruses than several other groups of mammals. These viruses often don’t seem to harm the bats that carry them, which points to a long history of co-evolution. ‘Spillovers’ from bats to people either occur directly, through contact with infected bats or indirectly through intermediate hosts such as domestic animals or wildlife that have been contaminated by blood, saliva, urine or faeces of bats.
人畜共患病是起源於動物、人類可以感染的疾病。世界各地的蝙蝠比其他哺乳動物攜帶更多病毒。這些病毒通常似乎並不傷害攜帶它們的蝙蝠，可見病毒和蝙蝠經歷了漫長的共同進化史。從蝙蝠到人類的傳播要麼通過接觸感染的蝙蝠直接發生，要麼通過中間宿主間接發生，中間宿主包括被蝙蝠的血液、唾液、尿液或糞便汙染的家養或野生動物。
Outbreaks of such zoonotic diseases have increased in recent decades often as a result of bushmeat consumption as well as human encroachment into natural habitats involving deforestation and agricultural intensification. This article reviews some of the bat borne zoonotic viruses that have made the headlines in recent years, including Ebola, Marburg, SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, Hendra, Nipah, and Lyssavirus.
人畜共患病的暴發近幾十年來有所增加，一個原因是對野生動物的捕食，另一個原因是人類通過砍伐森林和增加農業用地對自然棲息地的入侵。本文介紹一些近年來引人關注的蝙蝠攜帶的人畜共患病毒，包括埃博拉病毒、馬爾堡病毒、SARS病毒、中東呼吸綜合症病毒、亨德拉病毒、尼帕病毒和麗沙病毒。
Ebola埃博拉病毒
In late August 2007 information began to trickle in to health authorities on an unidentified illness in a remote area of the Kasai-Occidental Providence in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The case reports listed a number of bad symptoms-fever, severe headache, vomiting, major abdominal pain, bloddy diarrhea, and severe dehydration. The first recognized cases were on June 8, following the funerals of two village chiefs. Tellingly, the entire first group of individuals infected had assisted with the burials. Researchers discovered that it was caused by the Ebola virus.
2007年8月末，剛果民主共和國衛生部門不斷收到關於一種未知疾病的報告，這些病例發生在西開賽省普羅維登斯一個偏僻的小村莊。病例報告列了一系列嚴重的症狀，包括髮燒、嚴重頭疼、嘔吐、肚子疼、帶血腹瀉和嚴重脫水。第一批病例發現於6月8日，當時剛舉行完兩個村莊頭領的葬禮。值得注意的是，第一批感染的人都曾在葬禮上幫過忙。研究人員發現這些病例是由埃博拉病毒引起的。
Ebola, is the most serious of these recently emerged zoonotic viruses, in terms of human mortality. Sporadic outbreaks of this haemorrhagic disease have been known for 40 years in isolated forest villages across central Africa. The outbreaks spread in waves, accounting for up to a few hundred deaths before abruptly dying out, often before public health authorities could respond. In the recent outbreak in West Africa, the virus had mutated to become more infectious and improved transport links meant that it soon entered towns and cities. Nearly 30,000 people were infected of whom over 11,000 died.
埃博拉是近年來出現的人畜共患病中致死率最高的一個。這種出血疾病在非洲中部與世隔絕的林中村不時暴發，已有40多年曆史。病毒一波波傳播，在突然消失前造成幾百人死亡，公共衛生部門都來不及反應。最近一次在西非的暴發中，病毒變異得傳染性更強，加上發達的交通網絡，病毒很快傳入了城鎮。這次暴發共有近30000人被感染，其中11000人死亡。
It is thought that fruit bats of the Pteropodidae family are natural Ebola virus hosts.
狐蝠科的果蝠是埃博拉病毒的天然宿主。
Marburg 馬爾堡病毒
Marburg virus was first recognized in 1967, when outbreaks of hemorrhagic fever occurred simultaneously in laboratories in Marburg and Frankfurt, Germany and in Belgrade, Yugoslavia (now Serbia). Thirty-one people became ill, initially laboratory workers followed by several medical personnel and family members who had cared for them. Seven deaths were reported. The first people infected had been exposed to imported African green monkeys or their tissues while conducting research.
馬爾堡病毒第一次被發現是在1967年，當時在德國馬爾堡和法蘭克福、南斯拉夫（現在的塞爾維亞）貝爾格萊德的實驗室中同時暴發一種叫出血熱的病。共有32人生病，最初是實驗室工作人員，接著是幾個醫護人員和照顧他們的家人。死亡7例。感染的第一個人在做研究時接觸過進口非洲綠猴或它們的組織。
The reservoir host of Marburg virus is the African fruit bat, Rousettus aegyptiacus. Fruit bats infected with Marburg virus do not to show obvious signs of illness. Primates (including humans) can become infected with Marburg virus, and may develop serious disease with high mortality.
馬爾堡病毒的儲主是非洲果蝠，埃及果蝠。感染了馬爾堡病毒的果蝠沒有明顯的生病跡象。靈長類動物（包括人類）可以感染馬爾堡病毒，從而染上致死率很高的嚴重疾病。
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome 嚴重急性呼吸系統綜合症
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV) first occurred in 2002 in China and spread throughout the world (thus becoming a pandemic) with over 8000 confirmed cases of which nearly 800 were fatal. Soon after the outbreak, the virus was found in masked palm civets and raccoon dogs in a market in Guangdong Province and it took some time before horseshoe bats were identified as the natural hosts, from which the virus had spilled over to the carnivores.
嚴重急性呼吸系統綜合症（由SARS-CoV冠狀病毒引起）於2002年在中國首次出現，繼而傳播到全世界（因而變成了全球性流行病），最終有8000多確診病例，其中將近800人死亡。這次暴發後，在廣東省一個市場的果子狸和狸身上發現了病毒，又過了一段時間才確定馬蹄蝠是天然宿主，病毒從馬蹄蝠傳到了食肉動物身上。
Middle East Respiratory Syndrome 中東呼吸綜合症
Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (also caused by a coronavirus, MERS-CoV) was first reported on the Arabian peninsula in 2012, is spread mainly by human to human contact and has infected around 1200 people worldwide, about 450 of whom have died. Because a small fragment of viral DNA from an Egyptian tomb bat (Taphozous perforatus) was found to be identical with that from the first MERS patient, it was suspected that bats were the natural reservoirs, but that has not been substantiated, and no other bat has been found to carry MERS. Instead most human infections have been traced to close contact with dromedary camels.
中東呼吸綜合症（也是由一種叫MERS-CoV的冠狀病毒引起的）於2012年在阿拉伯半島首次報道，主要通過人和人之間的接觸傳播，全世界有大約1200人感染，其中約450人死亡。因為發現埃及墓蝠身上的一小塊病毒DNA片斷與第一個MERS病人身上的相同，所以懷疑蝙蝠是MERS病毒的天然儲主，但並沒有證實，也沒有發現其他蝙蝠攜帶MERS病毒。相反，多數感染的人都跟單峰駝有過近距離接觸。
Hendra 亨德拉病毒
Hendra was first detected in Australia during an outbreak of infectious respiratory disease in horses and humans in 1994. There have been several subsequent spillovers resulting in seven human cases and four deaths. Pteropodid bats have been confirmed as reservoirs of the disease. Horses became infected when they grazed on pastures infected with bat urine and passed on the disease to those caring for them. However with appropriate horse husbandry, the disease has been contained.
亨德拉病毒於1994年在澳大利亞首次發現，當時在馬和人身上暴發了傳染性呼吸系統疾病。後續有幾次傳播，導致7人感染，4人死亡。翼足類蝙蝠已被證實是亨德拉病毒的儲主。當馬在被蝙蝠尿液感染的牧場上吃草時，它們會被感染，並把這種疾病傳給照顧它們的人。然而，通過適當的馬匹飼養管理，該疾病得到了控制。
Nipah 尼帕病毒
Nipah, was first isolated in 1998 in pigs and pig workers suffering from encephalitis in Malaysia, where 265 cases resulted in 105 deaths. Cessation of pig movements and culling over a million pigs brought the disease under control. The experience with Hendra soon led to fruit bats being identified as the source of infection, with pigs eating fallen fruit contaminated by bats.
尼帕病毒於1998年在馬來西亞首次從患有腦炎的豬和養豬人員身上分離，這次共265人感染，其中105人死亡。停止生豬的流動和撲殺100多萬頭生豬使該病得到控制。因為有應對亨德拉病毒的經驗，這次很快將果蝠確認為感染源，豬吃了被蝙蝠汙染後掉落到地上的水果致病。
Since 2001 however human cases have occurred almost annually in Bangladesh and occasionally nearby in India, with higher fatality rates than in Malaysia and with a different route of infection. This occurs mainly by drinking palm sap infected with the virus by the Indian flying fox (Pteropus giganteus). Preventing access by bats to the pots which collect the sap has reduced the infection rate.
然而，自2001年以來，孟加拉國幾乎每年都發生人感染病例，鄰近的印度偶爾也會發生人感染病例，致死率高於馬來西亞，而且感染途徑不同。人感染是因為飲用了被印度大狐蝠攜帶的病毒感染的棕櫚汁。阻止蝙蝠接近收集棕櫚汁的罐子降低了感染率。
Lyssavirus 麗沙病毒
In early July 2002 in Franklin County, Tennessee, a thirteen-year-old boy named Jeremy Watkins picked up a sickly bat on his way home from a day of fishing. None of the other family members handled it, and his stepfather wisely made him release the animal soon after Jeremy revealed his find.
2002年7月初，在美國田納西州的富蘭克林縣，13歲男孩傑里米·沃特金斯釣完魚回家，路上撿到一隻生病的蝙蝠。傑里米把蝙蝠的事告訴大家後，家人都沒有碰它，繼父明智地讓他把蝙蝠放了。
On August 21 Jeremy complained of headache and neck pain. Then a day or so later his right arm became numb and he developed diplopia, or double vision, and a constant, queasy confusion. Three days later he was taken to the local hospital's emergency room but was discharged with the incorrect diagnosis of "muscle strain". The next day he was back in the emergency room, this time with a fever of 102℉. He had the same symptoms, but now his speech was slurred, he had a stiff neck, and difficulty swallowing.
8月21號，傑里米說頭疼、脖子疼。過了一兩天，他的右胳膊變得麻木，眼前開始有重影，繼而嘔吐、意識模糊。三天後他被送到當地醫院的急診室，但被誤診為“肌肉拉傷”後出院。第二天他又回到了急診室，這次發燒到102華氏度。他的症狀跟之前相同，但這次他言語不清，脖子僵硬，吞嚥困難。
At this point, Jeremy was transferred to a local children's hospital. By August 26 he could no longer breathe or think normally. He was also producing copious amounts of saliva. Highly agitaged to the point of being combative, Jeremy was sedated and put on life support. His mental status deteriorated rapidly and by the next morning he was completely unpresponsive. On August 31 Jeremy was pronounced brain-dead and following the withdrawal of life support, he died of bat-borne lyssavirus.
此時，傑里米被轉到當地兒童醫院。到8月26號，他已經不能正常呼吸和思考。他還口吐大量白沫、激動不已，醫生只好給他服用鎮靜劑，使用生命支持系統。他的精神狀態迅速惡化，到第二天早上他對外界完全失去反應。8月31號，傑里米被宣告腦死亡，之後撤走生命支持系統。他死於蝙蝠攜帶的麗沙病毒。
Lyssavirus causes rabies and the genus is rapidly growing, with 15 species currently recognised (including EBLV), all but two of which have been isolated from bats. The best known is classical rabies virus (RABV) which remains one of the most significant human zoonoses, killing tens of thousands of people each year in Africa and Asia following dog bites, according to the World Health Organisation. Vampire bat rabies, caused by the same virus species, is a major public health threat in Latin America.
麗沙病毒會導致狂犬病，而且該屬中新發現的不同基因型的病毒數量正在迅速增加，目前已知有15種（包括EBLV）不同基因型的病毒，其中除了兩種，其他都是從蝙蝠身上分離的。最著名的是經典狂犬病病毒（RABV），根據世界衛生組織的數據，它仍然是最重要的人類人畜共患病之一，每年在非洲和亞洲導致數萬被狗咬過的人死亡。吸血蝙蝠狂犬病也是由同一種病毒RABV引起的，是對拉丁美洲公共衛生的主要威脅。
詞彙與短語
1. domestic animals，家養動物。
2. saliva，[səˈlaɪvə]，n. 唾液。
3. dehydration，[ˌdiːhaɪˈdreɪʃn]，n. 脫水。
4. in terms of something，從……方面，就……而言。
It's a mistake tothink ofFlorida onlyin terms ofits tourist attractions. 只從旅遊景點來考慮佛羅里達是錯誤的。
5. spread，[spred]，v. 傳播。
6. care for somebody/something，照顧某人/某事。
He thanked the nurses who had cared for him. 他感謝照顧過他的護士們。
7. expose somebody to something，讓某人處於危險情況。
The report revealed that workers had been exposed to high levels of radiation. 報告顯示，工人們受到過高水平的輻射。
8. rabies，[ˈreɪbiːz]，n. 狂犬病，恐水病。
英文來源
https://www.bats.org.uk/about-bats/bats-and-disease/bats-and-viruses
https://www.cdc.gov/vhf/marburg/index.html
https://www.who.int/health-topics/ebola/#tab=tab_1
The Viral Storm: The Dawn of a New Pandemic Age by Nathan Wolfe
