2014年7月份以来，“埃博拉”这个词越来越频繁地出现在公众面前。这个被称为“非洲死神”的病毒固然可怕，但是，比它更可怕的却是对埃博拉的盲目恐惧，所谓想象有风险，脑补需谨慎，不要被“唬人”的头条吓得失去理智，科普文现在奉上！

　The deadliest Ebola outbreak in history that has so far killed almost 1000 people in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria in West Africa has sparked fear around the world.
最近，埃博拉病毒在几内亚、利比亚、塞拉利昂和尼日利亚等西非国家肆虐，已造成1000多人死亡，是史上最严重的一次埃博拉大爆发，令全世界人心惶惶。

The outbreak is unprecedented both in infection numbers and in geographic scope. Officials from the World Health Organization (WHO) said earlier this month the outbreak “is moving faster than our efforts to control it”, reported CNN. So far, the battle against the virus doesn’t appear to be slowing down.
此次疫情感染人数之多，传播范围之广都是前所未有的。本月上旬，世界卫生组织官员在CNN的报道中说，此次埃博拉“蔓延速度之快，已超出了我们的控制范围。”截止今天，与埃博拉的斗争仍然刻不容缓。

The Ebola virus is terrifying no matter where it strikes: It’s a disease with no cure that causes headaches and fever, severe diarrhea, vomiting and bleeding and has been known to kill up to 90 percent of its victims.
不论在哪里，埃博拉病毒都令人闻风丧胆，感染埃博拉病毒会导致头痛、发热、严重腹泻、呕吐以及出血；而它目前尚无治疗方法，死亡率高达90%。

It is understandable for people to be panicked, but those living outside Africa shouldn’t be particularly concerned about contracting the virus, says a Washington Post article.
《华盛顿邮报》的一篇文章写道：人们的恐慌是可以理解的，但是，身处非洲国家之外的人不必过于担心自己会被感染。

This is because transmission of Ebola requires direct contact with an infected person’s blood, vomit or other bodily fluids during the period that he or she is contagious. It is something that is extremely unlikely for anyone but healthcare workers. The virus is not spread by coughing or sneezing.
这是因为埃博拉是通过体液传播的，只有直接接触感染者的血液、呕吐物或是其他体液才可能被感染，而咳嗽、打喷嚏并不会传染。由此看来，医务工作者才是最容易感染病毒的人。

Media outlets in the US and the UK are using terrifying headlines, wrongly claiming that people infected with the virus have traveled to their countries.
一些美国与英国媒体却用耸人听闻的标题，误称有感染者进入自己国家境内。

Too early to panic
恐慌过早

James Ball at The Guardian says the Ebola outbreak in Africa is tragic, but it is important to keep a sense of proportion. Other infectious diseases, including common influenza, are far, far deadlier.
来自《卫报》的詹姆斯?鲍尔说，埃博拉在非洲爆发确实情况惨烈，但是大家保持镇定同样重要。相较而言，其他一些传染性疾病，甚至普通的流感在蔓延期间远远比埃博拉更加致命。

Ball points out that since the Ebola outbreak began in February, around 300,000 people have died from malaria, while tuberculosis has likely claimed more than 600,000 lives. Ebola is not even close to being the biggest problem in Africa right now.
鲍尔指出，自今年2月埃博拉在非洲爆发以来，30万人死于疟疾，60万人死于肺结核，埃博拉现在甚至并不是非洲最严重的问题。

Ball says the most real effect for millions of people reading about Ebola will be fear and stigma.
而它造成最现实的影响却是让成千上万人看到“埃博拉”一词，就心生恐惧，令一些人为此背上污名。。

During the SARS outbreak of 2003, Asian-Americans were stigmatized, with public health hotlines inundated with calls from Americans worried about “buying Asian merchandise”, “living near Asians” and “going to school with Asians”.
2003年“非典”爆发之时，亚裔美国人就备受歧视，美国公共医疗热线每天都会接到人们的电话，担心“买了亚洲商品”、“邻居是亚洲人”或是“要和亚洲人一起上学”。

Similarly, in this Ebola outbreak, quite a few people hope their governments will shut off all travel to West Africa and forbid citizens in the infected regions to return to their countries. Panic and ignorance has even prompted some US politicians to suggest that migrant children attempting to enter the US from Central America may be carrying the virus, reported Salon.
无独有偶，在此次埃博拉疫情爆发期间，很多人希望本国政府能禁止任何人去往西非，同时不允许从疫区回来的本国公民回国。《沙龙》杂志报道，一些被恐惧和冷漠冲昏头脑的美国政客甚至认为那些从中美洲前往美国的移民子女也可能携带埃博拉病毒。

In the coming months, says Ball, almost none of us will catch the Ebola virus. Many of us, though, will suffer from fevers, headaches, shivers and other symptoms of illness.
鲍尔还说，在接下来的几个月里，很多人也许都会有发烧、头痛、颤栗以及其他疾病症状，但是几乎不会有人真的感染埃博拉病毒

As communities are stigmatized and mildly sick people fear for their lives, Ball says, it’s worth reflecting what the biggest threat to our collective well-being is: rare tropical diseases, or the media’s terrible coverage of them.
而鲍尔认为，有些居民已为此背上了污名，还有的人即使有轻微症状也会担心为此丧命，因此，我们要深思：究竟是当下对人类共同幸福最大的威胁，是这种罕见的热带传染病，还是媒体耸人听闻的报道？