18
0Episode: Plague in Siberia: A Lab Death Mystery
Duration: approximately 7 minutes
Level: B1 (Intermediate)
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[Mike]: Welcome back to Learn English with Podcasts! Sarah, when you hear the word plague, what comes to your mind?
zh:欢迎回到 Learn English with Podcasts！Sarah，当你听到鼠疫这个词，你会想到什么？
[Sarah]: Honestly? Old history books. The Black Death, long ago. Not news from this week. Why? Did something happen?
zh:说实话？古老的历史书。黑死病，很久以前的事。不是这周的新闻。怎么了？出什么事了吗？
[Mike]: Something strange happened in Siberia. A young lab worker died, and suddenly nearly 200 people are under medical watch.
zh:西伯利亚发生了一件奇怪的事。一名年轻的实验室工作人员去世，突然有近200人被医学观察。
[Sarah]: Wait, 200 people watched? Because of one death? That sounds serious. Where exactly?
zh:等等，200人被观察？因为一例死亡？听起来很严重。具体在哪里？
[Mike]: In Irkutsk, a region in eastern Siberia. She was in her late 20s. She worked at the Irkutsk Antiplague Research Institute. She died on Oct 2 with severe pneumonia.
zh:在西伯利亚东部的伊尔库茨克地区。她二十多岁。她在伊尔库茨克反鼠疫研究所工作。她在10月2日因重症肺炎去世。
[Sarah]: An anti-plague institute? So her job was to study plague? That makes it even stranger.
zh:反鼠疫研究所？所以她的工作就是研究鼠疫？这就更奇怪了。
[Mike]: Exactly. Local media said it may involve a broken test tube. They said she might have been infected during lab work. But that part is not officially confirmed.
zh:没错。当地媒体说可能与一支破裂的试管有关。他们说她可能在实验工作中被感染。但这部分还没有官方证实。
[Sarah]: Oh no. A broken tube sounds like a movie scene. What did the local leaders say?
zh:天哪。试管破裂听起来像电影情节。当地官员怎么说？
[Mike]: The head of nearby Buryatia, Alexei Tsydenov, said she died from a form of plague. But he also said she did not travel to his region. So two stories started to spread.
zh:附近布里亚特的负责人阿列克谢·齐杰诺夫说，她死于某种形式的鼠疫。但他也说她没有去过他的地区。于是两种说法开始流传。
[Sarah]: That is confusing. One side says plague, the other side says what?
zh:这让人困惑。一边说是鼠疫，另一边说什么？
[Mike]: The health watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, said it was pneumonia of unknown origin. They said the situation in Irkutsk is stable. They also said they found no dangerous germs linked to her work.
zh:卫生监督机构说这是不明原因肺炎。他们说伊尔库茨克的情况稳定。他们还说没有发现与她工作相关的危险病菌。
[Sarah]: So one office says plague, another says no germs found. Who should we believe? What about the 200 contacts?
zh:所以一个机构说是鼠疫，另一个说没发现病菌。该信谁？那200名接触者呢？
[Mike]: About 189 people were identified as contacts. They are all under observation. The good news is, so far none of them show symptoms.
zh:大约189人被确定为接触者。他们都在接受观察。好消息是，到目前为止他们都没有出现症状。
[Sarah]: That is a relief. Did the WHO say anything? They usually follow such cases.
zh:这让人松了口气。世界卫生组织说了什么吗？他们通常会跟进这类病例。
[Mike]: Yes. The WHO said it has followed the case since the first media reports. Then on Oct 7, Russia told the WHO there is no plague case. Russia said no high-threat pathogens were found in the contacts.
zh:说了。世卫组织说从第一批媒体报道起就一直在跟进。然后在10月7日，俄罗斯告诉世卫组织没有鼠疫病例。俄方说在接触者中没有发现高威胁病原体。
[Sarah]: So the official risk is low now. But people are still worried, right? Plague is such a scary word.
zh:所以现在的官方风险是低的。但人们还是担心，对吧？鼠疫这个词太吓人了。
[Mike]: True. Even Donald Trump talked about it on Oct 5. He called it a rough disease. He said America would help Russia if needed.
zh:没错。甚至特朗普在10月5日也谈到了这件事。他说这是一种很凶险的疾病。他说如果需要，美国愿意帮助俄罗斯。
[Sarah]: That shows how seriously people take it. Mike, can we slow down? Many listeners may ask, what exactly is plague?
zh:这说明大家有多重视。Mike，我们慢一点。很多听众可能会问，鼠疫到底是什么？
[Mike]: Good point. Plague is caused by a bacterium called Yersinia pestis. It lives mostly in small mammals like rats, and in their fleas. Think of fleas as tiny taxis for the germ.
zh:问得好。鼠疫由一种叫鼠疫耶尔森菌的细菌引起。它主要生活在老鼠这样的小哺乳动物和它们身上的跳蚤里。可以把跳蚤想象成细菌的微型出租车。
[Sarah]: Tiny taxis. Yuck, but easy to remember. I heard there are two main forms. Is that right?
zh:微型出租车。好恶心，但很好记。我听说主要有两种类型，对吗？
[Mike]: Right. The classic one is bubonic plague. That was the Black Death in the 14th century. It causes painful swollen areas called buboes. It usually does not spread from person to person.
zh:对。经典的一种是腺鼠疫。就是14世纪的黑死病。它会引起疼痛的肿块，叫淋巴结肿。它通常不会在人与人之间传播。
[Sarah]: And the other form is more dangerous? The one in the news?
zh:另一种更危险？就是新闻里这种？
[Mike]: Yes, pneumonic plague. It infects the lungs. A person can catch it by breathing in tiny infectious drops. That is why health workers watch it more closely.
zh:对，肺鼠疫。它感染肺部。一个人吸入微小的感染飞沫就可能中招。这就是卫生人员更加关注它的原因。
[Sarah]: Breathing in. That does sound scarier. Is it still common today? I thought it was gone.
zh:通过呼吸感染。听起来确实更可怕。现在还常见吗？我以为它已经消失了。
[Mike]: It never left. There are still about 2000 cases around the world every year. Most can be cured with common antibiotics if doctors act fast. Speed is everything.
zh:它从没消失。全球每年仍有大约2000例。如果医生行动够快，大多数用普通抗生素就能治好。速度就是一切。
[Sarah]: 2000 cases a year? That is more than I expected. Where do they happen?
zh:每年2000例？比我想象的多。都发生在哪里？
[Mike]: In places where wild rodents carry the germ. Even in the western parts of the US. Animal plague exists on every continent except Oceania. But human cases do not happen everywhere.
zh:在野生啮齿动物携带病菌的地方。甚至包括美国西部。动物鼠疫存在于除大洋洲以外的每个大洲。但并不是到处都有人发病。
[Sarah]: Wow, even in America. How easily does it spread between people? Like COVID?
zh:哇，美国也有。它在人与人之间传播有多快？像新冠那样吗？
[Mike]: Experts say no. One professor in London said it is fairly transmissible, but not as transmissible as COVID. Still, he warned about drug-resistant strains. If a lab works with such a strain, treatment gets harder.
zh:专家说没有。一位伦敦的教授说它有一定传播性，但不如新冠。不过他提醒要注意耐药菌株。如果实验室研究的是这类菌株，治疗会更难。
[Sarah]: Ah, that explains the worry about a lab case. So why do labs keep studying such a dangerous germ?
zh:啊，这就解释了为什么实验室病例让人担心。那实验室为什么还要研究这么危险的病菌？
[Mike]: Mostly to make better vaccines. For soldiers, for doctors, for people in areas where plague still appears. You have to understand the enemy to fight it.
zh:主要是为了研制更好的疫苗。为了士兵，为了医生，为了鼠疫仍会出现地区的人们。要打败敌人，就得先了解它。
[Sarah]: You have to understand the enemy. That is a good line. And maybe that is the strange part of this story.
zh:要打败敌人，就得先了解它。这句话说得好。也许这正是这个故事最奇怪的地方。
[Mike]: How do you mean?
zh:你指什么？
[Sarah]: The safest place should be the lab that fights plague. Yet this time, the scare started inside that very building. The guard house became the mystery house.
zh:最安全的地方本该是研究鼠疫的实验室。可这一次，风波恰恰从这栋楼里开始。岗哨变成了谜屋。
[Mike]: That is a sharp way to put it. And here is the quiet lesson I take. Plague is not a ghost from history. It is still out there in nature. What changed is us. We now have antibiotics, labs, and fast alerts.
zh:这个说法很犀利。我从中看到一个安静的道理。鼠疫不是历史里的幽灵。它还在大自然里。变的是我们。我们现在有了抗生素、实验室和快速预警。
[Sarah]: So the real question is not will plague return, but how fast we respond when it knocks. Thanks for listening to Learn English with Podcasts. If a scary headline pops up this week, will you panic, or will you check the facts first? Tell us, and see you next time.
zh:所以真正的问题不是鼠疫会不会回来，而是它敲门时我们反应有多快。感谢收听 Learn English with Podcasts。如果这周看到吓人的新闻，你会恐慌，还是先查事实？告诉我们，下期见。
