Swine flu in Egypt
埃及猪流感

Panic or foresight?
惊慌失措还是深谋远虑？

Oct 1st 2009 | CAIRO
From The Economist print edition

Egyptian officials are being unusually zealous in their battle for public health
埃及官员对公共卫生这场战役表现得异常狂热

EGYPTIANS blame their government for many things, but they cannot say it has failed to rise to the threat of swine flu. In May it ordered the mass slaughter of Egypt’s 200,000-odd pigs. Since the summer, masked health officials have screened the country’s airports, hauling some 800 feverish-looking visitors off to quarantine on arrival. In August the government banned anyone under 25 or over 60 from making the pilgrimage to Mecca, in a bid to keep the more vulnerable safe at home.
埃及人在许多事上指责政府不力，但是不能说政府在处理猪流感威胁上也办事不力。今年5月，政府下令宰杀埃及境内20多万头生猪。入夏以来，负责卫生的官员带着口罩，监控埃及各大机场，约800名状似发烧的游客刚到埃及，就被官员拖去隔离。8月，政府禁令任何25岁以下、60岁以上者去麦加朝拜，从而努力把体弱者留着国内，以保证其安全。

When a few cases of swine flu appeared in private schools and universities last month, the government closed down the lot. They reopen this week, along with state schools, where the academic year was delayed to prepare for the flu. Every school has now been supplied with thermometers, face-masks and on-call doctors. Strict inspections ensure they have functioning bathrooms as well as a room set aside to quarantine any child suspected of being ill. School days have been extended and play times will be staggered in an effort to thin the crowds of students.
上个月，私立学校和大学里出现了几粒猪流感病例，政府封了学校。本周这些学校同国立学校一道重又开课，本学年因猪流感问题而延期开课。每所学校现都配备了温度计和口罩，医生也随时待命。政府对各校严格检查，确保学校有可用于隔离疑似患者的房间和卫生间。学生在校时间延长，娱乐时间也都错开以保证学生不能过于聚集。

Responding to fear-mongering in the press, some local officials have taken extra measures. In the province of Beni Suef, south of Cairo, they have already chosen sites for mass graves for anticipated victims. The governor of Aswan, far up the Nile, has banned the smoking of hookahs in cafés, for fear that sharing the waterpipes could spread disease.
有些地方官员采取极端手段，来响应媒体所制造的恐慌氛围。在开罗南部的贝尼苏夫省，官员已经选好了预期死难者的公墓。尼罗河上游阿斯旺省省长，颁令禁止在咖啡馆中抽水烟袋，担心共用烟袋管会传播疾病。

All this may seem excessive, considering that Egypt has recorded just 943 cases of swine flu so far, only two of them fatal. The measures have certainly roused protest. The cull of pigs, reared by rubbish collectors who fed them on organic refuse, has not only further impoverished the dustmen but discouraged them from working, swelling ugly piles of sticky garbage on city streets. Tourists complain of being kidnapped by health officials and told to pay for costly tests. Parents hoping for a reprieve from child care bemoan the unexpected holidays. Café owners say they will lose money and that, since they give customers disposable pipe stems, their hookahs are quite sanitary.
鉴于埃及目前只有943粒猪流感病例，其中只有两人死亡，如此反应显得有些过激。措施当然引发了民众抗议。宰杀垃圾工用有机垃圾喂养的生猪，不但使垃圾工更贫困，还打消了他们的工作积极性，结果，城市街道堆满了脏兮兮、黏糊糊的垃圾。游客投诉说，他们遭到卫生官员的“绑架体检”，并要他们付高额体检费。父母本希望从看孩子的家务中缓一缓，现在只得为这意外的假期哀叹。咖啡馆老板们说他们会因此赔钱，还说既然咖啡馆已为客人提供一次性烟管，水烟袋应该是很卫生了。

Some say the government’s zeal is not just misguided but a deliberate distraction from bigger issues. But officials point out that nine-tenths of Egypt’s 82m people are squeezed into the Nile valley, an area smaller than Denmark. Poor families often keep animals at home, creating a vector for infectious diseases, which is why Egypt has had more fatalities than any country outside Asia from the truly deadly H5N1 strain of flu carried by birds: of some 87 Egyptian victims in the past three years, 27 have died.
有些人说，政府的狂热不只是受人误导，而是故意让国民从大事上分神。但官员指出，埃及8200万人口中十分之九挤在面积比丹麦还小的尼罗河谷内。穷人在家里养牲畜，这些牲畜成了传染病的载体，所以，埃及因感染真正致命的禽流感H5N1病毒而死亡的人数在亚洲之外是最高的：过去三年87粒埃及患者中，死亡的就有27人。