10大神祕病毒(下)

bon Virus

5.波旁病毒

A Kansas farmer recently died from a mysterious tick-borne viral infection. The man's symptoms began with nausea, weakness, and diarrhea. Lung and kidney failure followed. Doctors treated him with antibiotics, the standard course of action for tick-borne illness. Nothing worked. After 10 days in the hospital, he was dead.

最近，一個堪薩斯農民在神祕的蜱媒病毒感染中去世。他的症狀始於噁心、虛弱和腹瀉。然後是肺和腎衰竭。醫生給他用了抗生素，也就是蜱媒疾病的常規療法。10天后，他還是在醫院去世了。

With only one confirmed case, doctors are clueless about the disease's full spectrum. It might be a killer. Or this might be a rare case in which a mild disease became deadly. The best defense is to avoid tick contact by wearing long pants, using insect repellent, and performing frequent tick-checks.

只憑一個確診病例，醫生無從得知該病的全譜。它可能是種不治之症，也可能是一個小病致命的罕見病例。最好的預防措施是避免接觸蜱蟲：穿長褲，使用驅蟲劑，並經常檢查是否有蜱蟲叮咬。

rian Giant Virus

4.西伯利亞闊口罐病毒

A French research team recently unearthed a 30,000-year-old giant virus from the Siberian permafrost—and it's still infectious. The virus was discovered in a soil sample from 98 feet beneath the ground. It is wider than other giant viruses, and large enough to be seen through a standard microscope.

2014年，一個法國研究小組在西伯利亞永久凍土中，發現了一個3萬年前的巨型病毒，而且它仍然具有傳染性。該病毒被發現於地下98英尺的土壤樣品中。它比其他巨型病毒更寬，並且大到標準顯微鏡就能看到。

The team fished for viruses using amoebas, their target hosts, as bait. The amoeba starting dying, and researchers discovered they were laden with these ancient giants. Unlike most viruses, which attack the nucleus, sibericum sets up replication factories in the host's cytoplasm. Although sibericum only targeted amoeba, another giant virus dubbed Marseillesvirus recent infected an 11-year-old boy in France. It is possible that dangerous viruses also lurk deep underground. More than any other factor, human activities like drilling and mining are likely to unearth these slumbering monsters.

該團隊用宿主變形蟲作爲誘餌捕捉病毒。變形蟲開始死亡，而研究人員發現，它們體內滿是這些古老的巨型病毒。與大多數攻擊細胞核的病毒不同，西伯利亞病毒在宿主的細胞質中複製。西伯利亞病毒只入侵變形蟲，但另一種被稱爲馬賽病毒的巨型病毒，最近在法國感染了一個11歲的男孩。地下深處可能還潛伏着危險的病毒。比任何其他因素，人類活動——如鑽井和採礦——更有可能釋放這些沉睡的怪物。

-Sea Virus

3.深海病毒

Researchers now believe there is more biomass inside earth's dark, nutrient-deprived depths than anywhere else. In the ocean depths off California, they recently made a remarkable discovery into that mysterious biomass: a virus that infects methane-eating archaea, small bacteria-like organisms, on the ocean floor. Samples were collected from a deep methane seep by pushing tubes into the ocean sediment. Back in the lab, the sediments were fed methane, which triggered archaea growth—along with their viral parasites.

研究人員現在認爲，黑暗而貧瘠的地球深處，比其他任何地方都富有生物質。在加利福尼亞的海洋深處，他們對這種神祕的生物質有了驚人的發現：一種病毒。它在海底感染以甲烷爲食的古細菌，這種古細菌是一種小型的細菌樣生物。研究人員將管推入海洋沉積物收集深層甲烷冷泉樣品。回到實驗室後，向沉積物輸入甲烷，激活了古生菌的生長，以及寄生它們的病毒。

The virus selectively targets one of its own genes for mutation. So do the archaea. The target of the mutations are the tips of the virus, which come into contact with their host. It is a countermeasure against tarchaea's own selective mutation defenses. This has led to a deep-sea arms race. Partial genetic matches between the California deep-sea viruses and ones discovered around Norway suggest global distribution.

病毒選擇自身基因中的一個用於突變。古細菌也是如此。突變的目標在病毒的末端，使其與宿主接觸。這是針對古細菌選擇性突變防禦的對策，導致了深海軍備競賽。加利福尼亞和挪威深海病毒的部分遺傳互相匹配，說明了這種病毒的全球分佈。

erious Paralysis

2.神祕癱瘓

In 2015, a wave of American children suffered from acute flaccid paralysis. The outbreak coincided with the flaring up of another respiratory disease caused by the enterovirus EV-D68, a relative of poliovirus. Many suspected a correlation. However, EV-D68 is not known for causing systemic problems like paralysis, and it was only found in 20 percent of the cases. A case from Virginia led some to believe that the cause might be from another virus called C105.

2015年，很多美國兒童患上了急性軟癱。癱瘓與另一種由腸病毒EV-D68（脊髓灰質炎病毒的近親）引起的呼吸道疾病同時爆發，使很多人懷疑它們有相關性。然而沒有證據顯示，EV-D68會導致癱瘓之類的神經問題，而且僅在20％的病例中發現了這種病毒。一個弗吉尼亞的病例讓一些人相信，原因可能是一種名爲C105的病毒。

Before the Virginia case, C105 had only been identified in Peru and the Republic of Congo. The disease is associated with respiratory problems. However, a few African cases were linked with paralysis. The C105 theory could explain why 80 percent of the patients tested negative for EV-D68. Yet none of the patients were found to have enterovirus in their spinal fluid, which would account for the neurological symptoms. The cause of the outbreak remains a mystery.

在弗吉尼亞病例之前，C105只在祕魯和剛果共和國被發現，會導致呼吸道疾病。不過，少數非洲病例也與癱瘓有關。 C105理論可以解釋，爲什麼80％的患者是EV-D68陰性。然而，沒有患者的脊髓液中發現了腸病毒，無法解釋神經症狀。爆發的原因仍然是一個謎。

agnosed Hemorrhagic Fever Syndrome

1.未確診的出血熱綜合症

South Sudan is plagued by violence, hunger, and now a mysterious viral outbreak. So far, 10 people have died from Ebola-like symptoms of bleeding, fever, and vomiting. However, Ebola is not the culprit. Doctors have dubbed the disease "undiagnosed hemorrhagic fever syndrome." Last year, Darfur in Sudan had 129 fatalities from an unidentified illness. It is not yet known whether they are the same disease.

南蘇丹飽受暴力和飢餓困擾，現在還要加上一種神祕病毒的爆發。到目前爲止，有10人死於類似埃博拉感染的出血、發熱和嘔吐。然而，埃博拉不是罪魁禍首。醫生們稱之爲“未診斷的出血熱綜合徵”。去年，蘇丹達爾富爾有129人死於不明原因的疾病。目前還不知道是否是同一種疾病。

Blood samples for infected patients have revealed a host of viruses: onyong-nyong, chikungunya, and dengue fever. However, none explain the 10 deaths, and none contained Ebola. Most believe this is a virus spread by ticks or mosquitoes, but some are not ruling out the possibility of a bacteria or parasitic origin. So far, there is no evidence of person-to-person transmission, and 75 percent of the victims are under 20. Violent civil war and underdevelopment in the region prevent effective research into the disease's origins.

感染者的血樣中含有大量病毒：阿尼昂尼昂、基孔肯雅和登革熱。然而，它們都不能解釋這10人的死因，埃博拉病毒也不能。大多數人認爲，這是一種由蜱或蚊子傳播的病毒，但一些人也不排除來源於細菌或寄生蟲的可能性。到目前爲止，沒有證據顯示該病會在人與人之間傳播，而75％的受害者不到20歲。該地區的暴力內戰和不發達妨礙了對病源的有效研究。