VOA慢速英語：美國去年冬天有8萬人死于流感

US: 80,000 Flu Deaths Last Winter

美國去年冬天有8萬人死于流感

United States health officials say an estimated 80,000 people died of influenza and problems resulting from the flu last winter.

美國衛(wèi)生官員表示，去年冬天估計有8萬人死于流感和流感引發(fā)的疾病。

The director for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported the number to The Associated Press. It represents the largest number of flu deaths nationwide in at least 40 years.

美國疾病控制和預防中心(簡稱CDC)主任向美聯(lián)社報告了這一數(shù)字，這是美國至少40年以來流感死亡的最大數(shù)值。

Health experts were expecting the winter of 2017-2018 to be a bad year for flu deaths, but not that bad.

衛(wèi)生專家當時預計2017到2018年冬季是流感死亡非常嚴重的一年，但并沒有那么嚴重。

Doctor William Schaffner is an expert on vaccines. He works at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee. Schaffner noted that 80,000 deaths is nearly two times as much as what health officials once considered a "bad year."

威廉·沙夫納(William Schaffner)博士是一名疫苗專家。他在田納西州的范德比爾特大學工作。沙夫納指出，8萬人死亡幾乎是衛(wèi)生官員曾經(jīng)以為的“嚴重的一年”的兩倍。

CDC officials say that between 12,000 and 56,000 Americans die every year from flu-related causes.

美國疾病控制和預防中心官員表示，每年有1.2萬到5.6萬美國人死于流感相關原因。

While 80,000 deaths seems high, the exact number could be even higher.

雖然8萬人的死亡率看上去很高，但具體數(shù)字可能甚至會更高。

CDC officials do not have an exact count of how many people die from the flu each year. Influenza is a relatively common disease and not all flu cases are reported. Also, flu is not always listed on death records as the official cause of death. For that reason, the CDC must estimate the number of dead based on statistical models.

美國疾病控制和預防中心官員并不確切知道每年有多少人死亡流感。流感是一種相對常見的疾病，并非所有流感病例都有報告。此外，流感并不總是列在死亡紀錄中作為正式死亡原因。因此，CDC必須根據(jù)統(tǒng)計模型來估計死亡人數(shù)。

While last winter was a bad flu season in the U.S., it was not the worst.

雖然去年冬天在美國是一次嚴重的流感季，但是這并非最嚴重的。

The 1918 flu pandemic lasted nearly two years. Historians estimate that the disease was to blame for between 500,000 to 700,000 deaths during that period. The exact number is still not known.

1918年的流感大流行持續(xù)了近兩年。歷史學家估計，在此期間，該疾病造成了近50到70萬人死亡，確切數(shù)字仍然不得而知。

One thing that made the 2017-2018 flu season so bad was that the strain of the flu virus was strong. Usually the disease kills the very young, the very old or those who are already sick. However, last winter, the flu killed many healthy Americans.

讓2017到2018年流感季如此嚴重的原因之一是這次流感病毒的毒株很強。通常這種疾病會讓老幼病弱死亡。然而去年冬天的流感導致了很多健康的美國人死亡。

Another thing that made the flu season so deadly was that the flu vaccine was not as effective as experts had predicted.

這次流感季如此致命的另一項原因是流感疫苗沒有專家預測的那么有效。

In a 2017 statement to the press, the World Health Organization said that every year up to 650,000 deaths are connected with influenza or influenza-related illnesses. This is a new estimate by the U.S. CDC, the WHO and global health partners. This is more than the global estimate from ten years ago. At that time, experts estimated that between 250,000 to 500,000 people died from influenza or influenza-related illnesses.

世界衛(wèi)生組織在2017年向媒體發(fā)表的聲明中表示，每年都有多達65萬人死于流感或流感相關疾病。這是美國疾病控制和預防中心、世界衛(wèi)生組織以及全球衛(wèi)生合作伙伴的最新估計，它高出了10年前的全球估計。當時，專家估計每年有25萬到50萬人死于流感或流感相關疾病。

Back in the U.S., health officials are predicting a weaker strain of flu virus this coming winter. Drug makers have made changes to the vaccine. Even though the vaccine did not work well last year, health experts still strongly suggest getting vaccinated.

說回美國，衛(wèi)生官員預測今年冬天的流感病毒將會變弱。制藥商已經(jīng)對疫苗進行了改進。盡管去年流感疫苗效果不佳，但是衛(wèi)生專家還是強烈建議人們接種疫苗。

I'm Anna Matteo.

安娜·馬特奧報道。