广东今年出现登革热高发趋势

The southern Chinese province of Guangdong has seen a surge in dengue fever cases this year, raising fears that factors such as climate change and urbanization have accelerated the spread of the mosquito-borne disease in the region.

中国南部广东省今年的登革热病例激增，人们担心气候变化和城市化等因素，加快了这种通过蚊子传播的疾病在该地区的传播。

Health officials said on Wednesday that Guangdong had seen 7,497 cases of dengue this year, the state news agency Xinhua reported. That was a sharp jump from the 6,089 cases reported on Monday.

国家通讯社新华社报道，卫生官员周三表示，广东省今年的登革热病例已达7497例。这比周一报道的6089例有大幅上升。

Most years, Guangdong, China’s most populous province with more than 100 million people, sees fewer than 1,000 cases. Between 1990 and 2008, the highest level was in 1995, with about 7,000 cases. “This will likely be the year with the most cases,” Chen Xiaoguang, an infectious disease expert with the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine at Southern Medical University in the provincial capital Guangzhou, said on Thursday in an email.

广东省是中国人口最多的省，全省人口超过1亿，大多数年里，广东每年登革热的发病情况不到1000例。从1990年至2008年间，1995年的发病水平最高，约7000例。位于省会广州的南方医科大学的公共卫生与热带医学学院传染病专家陈晓光周四在一封电子邮件中说，“今年将很可能是发病最多的一年。”

Dengue causes fever, headaches, rashes and extreme joint pain, which gives it the informal name “breakbone fever.” With proper treatment the fatality rate is less than 1 percent, but severe cases of dengue hemorrhagic fever can be deadly, particularly for infants who make up most of the estimated 22,000 who die from dengue each year worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.

登革热引起发烧、头痛、皮疹，以及关节剧痛，因此有“裂骨热”的非正式名称。得到适当治疗的情况下，该病的死亡率低于1％，但严重的登革出血热可致命，特别是婴幼儿患者，据世界卫生组织估计，全世界每年有2.2万人死于登革热，其中婴幼儿占绝大多数。

Thus far, Guangdong has reported three deaths. Most of the dengue cases have been found in Guangzhou, which reported 6,361 cases and two deaths as of Wednesday. The city of Foshan was the second highest, with 789 cases and one death, Xinhua said.

迄今为止，广东已有3例死亡报告。大多数登革热病例出现在广州，截至周三已有6361例及两例死亡报告。佛山市发现的病例数第二高，共有789例及一例死亡报告，新华社说。

In neighboring Hong Kong, the Center for Health Protection reported 66 confirmed cases of dengue fever as of Monday, all of which it said were imported from elsewhere, including one from the Chinese mainland.

在邻近的香港，当地的卫生防护中心报告说，截至周一，已有66例确诊的登革热病例，卫生防护中心表示，所有病例都来自外地，包括来自中国大陆的一例。

The dengue virus is spread by Aedes mosquitoes and was only seen in sporadic outbreaks during most of the 20th century in China. But starting in 1978, there have been increasingly serious outbreaks in southern and coastal China. Between 1978 and 2008, there were 655,324 cases that killed 610 people in mainland China, Dr. Chen and several colleagues wrote in a 2010 paper.

登革热病毒由一种伊蚊属的蚊子传播，在20世纪的大部分时间里，该疾病在中国只有过零星的爆发。但从1978年起，在中国南方和沿海地带开始出现日益严重的疫情。陈晓光和几位同事在2010年发表的一篇论文中写道，从1978年到2008年，中国大陆共有655324例登革热病例，导致610人死亡。

Dr. Chen said that unusually warm temperatures and high rainfall along with the prevalence of dengue in neighboring areas of Southeast Asia contributed to the scale of the Guangdong outbreak this year.

陈晓光表示，导致广东省今年疾病爆发规模的原因有几个，包括异常高的气温，高降雨量，以及登革热在附近东南亚地区的流行。

Yang Zhicong, deputy director of the Guangzhou municipal disease control and prevention center, also blamed public unwillingness to take steps to control mosquito populations, Xinhua reported. Officials have asked residents to reduce standing water that allows mosquitoes to breed. They have predicted that further eradication efforts, including spraying insecticide, should help reduce the outbreak, which should naturally decrease as cooler autumn temperatures make the environment less hospitable for mosquitoes.

新华社报道称，广州市疾病预防控制中心副主任杨智聪还把爆发的规模归咎于公众不愿采取控制蚊子数量的措施。官员曾要求居民减少蚊子得以滋生的积水。他们预测，进一步根除蚊子的努力，包括喷洒杀虫剂，应有助于减少疾病爆发，不过，随着秋天凉爽气温的到来，疫情自然会减弱，因为低温环境不适合蚊子生存。

Other parts of Asia have also been confronted with dengue this summer. Earlier this month, Japan saw its first dengue cases since 1945, when at least 70 people fell ill in an outbreak connected to mosquitoes in Yoyogi Park in Tokyo.

亚洲其他地区今年夏天也面临着登革热的问题。本月初，日本出现了自1945年以来的第一个登革热病例，1945年的爆发与东京代代木公园中的蚊子有关，至少有70人被感染。

Taiwan has tallied 2,589 dengue cases and five deaths from dengue hemorrhagic fever this year, the Taiwan Centers for Disease Controlsaid on Monday. The present rate of infection means the annual total probably will reach a level not seen since 2002, the centers’ deputy director general, Chou Jih-haw, told the state-owned Central News Agency.

台湾的疾病管制署周一表示，台湾今年的登革热发病情况已达2589例，并有5人死于登革出血热。疾病管制署副署长周志浩对政府所有的中央新闻社表示，目前的感染率意味着，本年度的发病数量可能会达到2002年以来的最高水平。

Long-term trends are likely to aid the spread of the virus. The W.H.O. says dengue cases have increased 30-fold over the past 50 years because of population growth, urbanization, increased global trade and growing amounts of plastics and other refuse that can provide a breeding ground for mosquitoes.

未来的长期趋势可能有助于这种病毒的传播。世界卫生组织表示，在过去50年中，登革热病例增加了30倍还多，主要原因是人口增长、城市化、全球贸易增长，以及越来越多的塑料垃圾和其他废弃物，为蚊子的滋生提供了条件。

“Because of climate and environmental change and increasing international trade and travel, dengue may become more and more common in China,” said Dr. Chen. “So we have to strengthen our efforts against it.”

“由于气候和环境变化，加上国际贸易和旅行的日益增长，登革热在中国可能会变得越来越常见，”陈晓光说。“因此，我们必须加强抗击这种疾病的努力。”