是貧窮加劇了埃博拉疫情蔓延?

Ebola spreads through contact with the blood and fluids of infected people. But experts say the outbreak is also being fueled by poverty and poor governance.
埃博拉病毒通過血液和體液接觸進行傳播。然而專家說，貧窮與管理不善也加劇了疫情的蔓延。

In West Africa, they are literally building the facilities to handle Ebola from scratch. Improvised tents house quarantined Ebola patients.
在西非，人們從無到有、興建新設施，以應對埃博拉病毒。搭起的臨時帳篷隔離了一部分埃博拉病患者。

Many hospitals in the region lack basic equipment, says Tulane University virus expert Dr. Daniel Bausch. He spoke to VOA by Skype.
杜蘭大學的病毒專家丹尼爾·鮑許說，該地區的許多醫院缺乏最基本的醫療設備。他向記者闡述了自己的看法。

“You go to a hospital in Sierra Leone or Liberia, and it’s not unusual for a healthcare worker to say, ‘We don’t have gloves.’ Or, ‘We don’t have clean needles, '"said Bausch.
鮑許說：“在一所塞拉利昂或者是利比里亞的醫院裏，聽到以下言論並不稀奇。一位醫護人員會說“我們沒有手套”，或者是“我們沒有乾淨的針頭”。”

Poor health systems plague the continent’s other Ebola hotspots, too. Bausch says there's a common factor.
落後的醫療系統也存在於非洲大陸上的其他疫情點。鮑許認爲，制約因素是相同的。

“All of the large outbreaks of Ebola or its sister virus, Marburg, happen in places where social and political unrest over the years have decimated the public health system, " he said.
鮑許說：“所有大規模的疫情暴發，如埃博拉和馬爾堡病毒，都是發生於社會政治局勢動盪多年、公共安全系統薄弱的國家。”

The war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo has seen six Ebola outbreaks. Civil wars wrecked health systems in Sierra Leone and Liberia in the 90s and 2000s.
兵連禍結的剛果民主共和國已經六次暴發埃博拉疫情。同樣，國內的戰爭分別於九十年代和二十世紀初摧殘了塞拉利昂和利比里亞的醫療系統。

Meanwhile, working in neighboring Guinea, Bausch watched paved roads erode to dirt paths and towns slide deeper into poverty under the weight of dictatorship and corruption.
與此同時，在臨近的幾內亞工作的鮑許目睹了該國在獨裁統治與腐敗的影響下，道路年久失修，城鎮也逐漸滑向赤貧的深淵。

“That period of not-responsible government degraded the systems, public health and otherwise in Guinea, and I think did have a role in leaving the country open to this sort of epidemic, " he said.
鮑許說： “政府的失職使得包括公共醫療在內的社會系統每況愈下，致使整個國家暴露於這一疫情的危險之中。”

Like the health systems, many people in Ebola-stricken regions lack the resources to get by. And that puts them at risk.
與衛生系統所類似，許多人在埃博拉肆虐的地區缺乏必要的資源以存活下來。這也讓他們身處險地。

As they cut down forests for charcoal and to grow food, Bausch says they are driving the bats thought to carry the virus out into the open.
鮑許說，他們砍伐樹林，以獲取木炭、種植作物，招致了攜帶病毒的蝙蝠的到來。

“With deforestation, bats that ordinarily would be foraging for fruit within fairly remote areas inside the forest now are forced to come out and look for fruit, for example, mango trees that may be in the proximity of humans and bring them closer to humans and have more of a chance of introduction of the virus, " said Bausch.
鮑許說：“隨着森林砍伐的加劇，一向在遠離人類居住區的森林覓食的蝙蝠，被迫逃離叢林。比如，距離人類較近的芒果樹，使得人類與蝙蝠的接觸機率提高，同時也提高了病毒的傳播機率。”

And poverty is also driving people deeper into the forest in search of food, including so-called "bushmeat, " which is known to carry the virus.
同時，貧窮也使人類在森林深處尋找食物，包括所謂的“叢林肉”，而後者正是傳播疾病的元兇。

It doesn’t have to be this way, says Dr. William Karesh with the EcoHealth Alliance, also speaking via Skype.
來自生態健康聯盟的威廉·卡瑞許說，其實事態原本不至於這樣。

“You have outbreaks in Uganda and they have invested in their health systems and they have invested in their education systems. So, of course, they still have these outbreaks but they’re controlled very rapidly, " said Karesh.
卡瑞許說：“在烏干達也有疫情。但他們在醫療和教育上做了投入。理所當然地，儘管有疫情，但是很快就得到了控制。”

Once this outbreak ends, Karesh says, health officials need to start preparing for the next one with better labs and hospitals, and more public information on how to prevent infection.
卡瑞許說，一旦這次疫情得到了控制，衛生官員需要着手提升實驗室、醫院和疾病預防知識宣傳的水平，以備下一次疫情的到來。

“We can’t stop earthquakes, but we can prevent a lot of the damage of earthquakes. And it’s the same with these emerging diseases and Ebola, " he said.
卡瑞許說： “我們不能阻止地震，但我們可以杜絕許多地震帶來的危害。這同樣適用於埃博拉和其他新型疾病。”

If governments invest in better education and healthcare systems, he says, the next outbreak could be less deadly.
他說，如果政府能夠加大對教育和醫療的投入力度，下一次疫情就不會如此致命。