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Stop this disease with ease
對抗病毒，從個人衛生習慣做起
There is probably nothing scarier than fighting an enemy that you cannot see. The novel coronavirus is one of these invisible enemies, and it has done quite a bit of damage. Ever since it was first spotted in Wuhan, Hubei in December, it has infected more than 44,000 people in China and other places in the world. As of Feb 11, 1,113 people were reported killed in China.
和看不見的敵人作戰，或許沒有比這更可怕的事了。新型冠狀病毒便是一個看不見的敵人，它造成了太多傷害。自去年12月湖北武漢首次發現新型冠狀病毒以來，中國以及全球多地超過4.4萬人已被感染。據報道，截至2月11日，中國累計死亡病例1113例。
But even if we cannot see the virus, we know how it behaves and spreads around, which is just like most other viruses. "The number one thing you can do to prevent any respiratory illness is to practice good personal hygiene," Tom Moorcroft, co-founder of Origins Of Health, a US-based health center, told CNET. And that includes wearing a mask and washing hands.
但就算我們無法用肉眼看到這種病毒，我們也能了解它與大多數病毒類似的癥狀和傳播途徑。“預防呼吸系統疾病，你能做的首要之事便是保持良好的個人衛生，”美國醫療中心“健康之源”的聯合創始人湯姆·默克羅夫特在接受科技資訊網采訪時如此表示。這就包括了戴口罩和勤洗手。
By wearing a mask, you keep yourself away from the droplets coughed and sneezed by infected people. These droplets can spread the virus – as far as two meters!
佩戴口罩能夠阻擋感染人群咳嗽、打噴嚏時所產生的飛沫。這些飛沫能夠傳播病毒——傳播距離最遠可達兩米。
But these droplets don't stay in the air for long before falling and landing on surfaces, like tables or smartphones. They can also be transmitted to elevator buttons and door knobs by our hands. And here is where washing hands becomes crucial, because, according to Jiang Rongmeng, a member of China's National Health Commission expert group, the novel coronavirus can stay alive for quite a long time on smooth surfaces.
但這些飛沫不會在空氣中停留多久，很快便會沉降到桌子、手機等物體表面。它們還能通過用手接觸電梯按鈕和門把手進行傳播。國家衛生健康委專家組成員蔣榮猛也表示，新型冠狀病毒在光滑的物體表面可存活相當長的一段時間，因此，勤洗手至關重要。
"Given the right temperature – around 20 °C, and the right humidity – around 50 percent, they might even stay alive for up to five days," Jiang said in a news conference on Feb 4.
“如果溫度、濕度合適 —— 比如說20度的環境，濕度50%，它們可以存活達到五天，” 蔣榮猛在2月4日的一場新聞發布會上如此表示。
A new discovery about the virus makes it even more necessary to keep these hygienic habits even if you don't think you've interacted with anyone infected. According to People's Daily, there is evidence that the virus might be contagious even before patients start showing symptoms. "The consequence is that there are no public health means to sort out or to identify people at risk of transmitting, because they don't even know that they're ill yet," Gerard Krause, head of the Department for Epidemiology at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection in Germany, told Al Jazeera.
一項關于新型冠狀病毒的新發現令這些衛生習慣變得更有必要，即便你自認為從未與感染者有所接觸。據《人民日報》報道，有證據表明，新型冠狀病毒在患者未出現癥狀前或已具備傳染性?！霸斐傻慕Y果就是，沒有公共健康措施能夠篩選或者甄別出有傳播風險的人群，因為這些人也不知道自己已經生病了，”德國赫爾姆霍茨傳染病研究中心流行病學部負責人杰拉德·克勞斯在接受半島電視臺采訪時如此表示。
Indeed, infectious diseases can be scary. But if there is anything positive that we can take away from this epidemic, it's that we've developed better hygienic habits. After all, washing our hands is actually what we should be doing every day.
傳染性疾病確實很可怕。但這次疫情還是給我們帶來了積極的變化 —— 大家都養成了更好的衛生習慣。畢竟，洗手正是我們每天都應該做到的事。
