外媒导读，手把手教你读英语新闻

小白老师说：打算把外媒导读做成一个固定栏目，精选外媒医学报道，通过手把手的详细导读，帮助大家获取最新的医学资讯、扩大词汇量、提升阅读和写作能力。这是一则关于拉沙热的新鲜报道，文中可能的生词都给大家做好了详细的注解，包括词性、中文、用法和例句。

我们今天要阅读的是 BBC News 3 月 5 日的报道**▼**

Lassa fever：The killer disease with no vaccine

拉沙热：没有疫苗的致命疾病

Since the beginning of the year, Nigeria has been gripped by an outbreak of a deadly disease. Lassa fever is one of a number of illnesses which can cause dangerous epidemics（流行病）, but for which no vaccine currently exists.

【解析】 grip vt. 抓住

be gripped by 被抓住；被控制住

例如：Chilling new evidence from the Atlantic Ocean is raising fears that western Europe could soon be gripped by a mini ice age.

最新证据显示，大西洋的寒冷让人担忧：欧洲可能在不久的将来被微型冰河期控制。

文中 “Nigeria has been gripped by an outbreak of a deadly disease. ” 意思是“尼日利亚被一场致命疾病的爆发牢牢控制。”

Lassa fever is not a new disease, but the current outbreak is unprecedented, spreading faster and further than ever before. Health workers are overstretched, and a number have themselves become infected and died.

【解析】overstretched adj. 被过度拉伸的

overstretched 这个词是一个复合词，即 over + stretched。over- 这个前缀表示 “过于…”， strentched 的意思是“拉伸的”，那 overstretched 则意为“被过度拉伸的”，在文中是指尼日利亚的医护人员为了应对疫情超负荷工作、过度劳累，他们中很多人也染上了拉沙热，甚至死亡。

以后大家要形容自己工作太累了，除了常用的 tired、exhausted（精疲力尽的），完全可以用用 overstretched 这个词。话说去年，小白老师带着大家做声势浩大的听力特训一百天的时候，就感觉 “ I was totally overstrtched. ” 换言之，小白老师感觉自己仿佛是一根细细的橡皮筋，被过度拉伸，随时有可能断掉。历历在目，非常形象。

The potentially fatal disease is a so-called “viral haemorrhagic fever”, which can affect many organs, and damage the body’s blood vessels.But it is difficult to treat.

【解析】viral haemorrhagic fever 病毒性出血热

例如：Lassa fever is difficult to distinguish from many other diseases which cause fever, including malaria, shigellosis, typhoid fever, yellow fever and other viral haemorrhagic fevers.

拉沙热很难与引起发烧的许多其它疾病区分，包括疟疾、志贺菌病、伤寒、黄热病和其它病毒性出血热。

Most people who catch Lassa will have only mild（温和的；轻的） symptoms such as fever, headache and general weakness（全身乏力）. They may have none at all. However, in severe cases, it can mimic another deadly haemorrhagic fever, Ebola, causing bleeding through the nose, mouth and other parts of the body.

【解析】mimic vt. 模仿，模拟

例如：The purpose of intensive regimen is to mimic physiological insulin secretion.

其目的是尽可能模拟正常机体生理胰岛素的分泌模式。

Lassa fever normally has a fatality rate（致死率） of about one per cent. But in the Nigerian outbreak it is thought to be more than 20% among confirmed and probable cases, according to the country’s Centre for Disease Control（疾控中心，即 CDC）.

About 90 people are thought to have died so far, but the true number may be much higher, because Lassa is so hard to diagnose.

Women who contract the disease late in pregnancy face an 80% chance of losing their child, or dying themselves. In the early stages it’s almost impossible to distinguish from other common diseases like malaria（疟疾）and dengue（登革热）.

With no readily available test, the only way to confirm a diagnosis is to analyse a blood or tissue sample in one of small number of specialised laboratories. The disease was first identified in the Nigerian town of Lassa in 1969, after an outbreak in a mission hospital. It has since been seen in many West African countries including Ghana（加纳）, Mali（马里） and Sierra Leone（萨拉利昂）.

However, this outbreak is causing particular concern because the number of cases is unusually high for the time of year. Health officials are working to understand why. Outbreaks can be influenced by seasonal weather conditions, which affect the numbers of the virus’s natural host（宿主）—the multimammate rat（多乳头鼠）.

These small mammals are common across West Africa, where they easily find their way into homes. Another possibility is that the high number of cases reflects heightened public awareness. Or it’s possible that something about the virus has changed.

Most people catch Lassa fever from anything contaminated with rat urine（尿液）, faeces（粪便）, blood or saliva（唾液）—through eating, drinking or simply handling contaminated objects in the home.

【解析】contaminate vt. 污染，弄脏

例如：Aflatoxins are carcinogenic fungal toxins that can contaminate corn, peanuts and other food crops such as tree nuts under certain conditions.

黄曲霉毒素是致癌的真菌毒素，可在某些条件下污染玉米、花生及其他粮食作物，如树坚果。

It can also pass from person to person through bodily fluids, meaning healthcare workers and people taking care of sick relatives without protective equipment are particularly at risk. The incubation period（潜伏期） for Lassa is up to three weeks. Researchers are trying to work out whether—like Ebola—Lassa can stay in the body and be passed on through sexual contact（性接触） even after illness subsides.

【解析】subside vi. 减弱，平息；（热度）消退

例如：I took an aspirin and the pain gradually subsided.

我服了一片阿司匹林，疼痛逐渐缓解了。

Nigeria has a strong public health system, and is used to dealing with epidemics like this. The World Health Organization (WHO) is working with Nigerian authorities to help coordinate（协调；整合） the response and the UK government has deployed a team of experts from its Public Health Rapid Support Team.

Those living in affected areas are being advised to take basic precautions: blocking holes that may allow rats to enter their homes, disposing of rubbish in covered dustbins, and storing food and water in sealed containers. People are advised to wear protective gloves when caring for anyone who may have Lassa fever, and to carry out safe burial practices（丧葬习俗）.

Despite these measures, the fight against Lassa—and other infectious diseases —is hampered（妨碍；束缚） by a lack of effective medical tools like diagnostic tests, treatments and vaccines. It is likely that a vaccine could be found for Lassa—reducing the possibility of an outbreak becoming a global health emergency—but as with other epidemic diseases that mainly affect poorer countries, progress has stalled（拖延；停止）.

Vaccine development is a long, complex and costly process. This is especially true for emerging epidemic diseases, where a prototype（原型；范本） vaccine can usually only be tested where there is an outbreak.

The WHO has drawn up a list of other serious, but often poorly understood diseases, with the potential for devastating outbreaks, including MERS（中东呼吸综合症）, Nipah（尼帕病毒）, Rift Valley Fever（裂谷热） and, of course, Ebola（埃博拉）. It plans to highlight gaps in our knowledge of these diseases and to begin further research. But research alone isn’t enough.

Stronger health systems are needed in the countries where epidemics are most likely to arise. This could mean building better healthcare facilities and training staff to recognise and respond to outbreaks. It will also mean working with communities to understand how to identify outbreaks at an early stage and prevent their spread.