在印度檢測到的病毒變種可能更易傳播

A potentially worrisome variant of the coronavirus detected in India may spread more easily. But the country is behind in doing the kind of testing needed to track it and understand it better.

在印度發(fā)現(xiàn)的一種可能令人擔(dān)憂的冠狀病毒變種可能更容易傳播。但是，在進(jìn)行跟蹤和更好檢測方面，印度落后了。

Yesterday, the World Health Organization designated the new version of the virus a “variant of concern" based on preliminary research, alongside those that were first detected in Britain, South Africa and Brazil but have spread to other countries.

昨天，世界衛(wèi)生組織根據(jù)初步研究，將新版病毒定為“令人擔(dān)憂的變種”，與那些在英國、南非和巴西首次發(fā)現(xiàn)但已擴(kuò)散到其他國家的病毒同樣可怕。

“We need much more information about this virus variant," said Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO's technical lead for Covid-19. "We need more sequencing, targeted sequencing to be done and to be shared in India and elsewhere so that we know how much of this virus is circulating.”

“我們需要更多關(guān)于這種病毒變種的信息，”Covid-19的技術(shù)負(fù)責(zé)人Maria Van Kerkhove說，“我們需要更多的測序，有針對性的測序，并在印度和其他地方分享，以便我們知道這種病毒有多少正在傳播。”

Viruses mutate constantly, and the surge in infections here has resulted in more opportunities for new versions to emerge.

病毒不斷變種，感染人數(shù)激增，導(dǎo)致變種的幾率更大。

But India was slow to start the genetic monitoring needed to see if those changes were happening and if they were making the coronavirus more infectious or deadly.

但印度在監(jiān)測是否有變種發(fā)生，以及這些變種是否使病毒更具傳染性或更致命的監(jiān)測方面進(jìn)展緩慢。

Indian scientists say their work has been hindered by bureaucratic obstacles and the government’s reluctance to share vital data. India is sequencing around 1 per cent of its total cases, and not all of the results are uploaded to the global database of coronavirus genomes.

印度科學(xué)家說，他們的工作受到官僚主義和政府不愿分享重要數(shù)據(jù)的阻礙。印度正在進(jìn)行測序的病例大約只有1% ，并非所有結(jié)果都上傳到全球冠狀病毒基因組數(shù)據(jù)庫。

When there isn't enough sequencing, there will be blind spots and more worrisome mutations could go undetected until they're widespread, said Alina Chan, a postdoctoral researcher at Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard who is tracking global sequencing efforts.

麻省理工學(xué)院和哈佛大學(xué)博士后研究人員Alina Chan正在跟蹤全球測序工作，她說，當(dāng)測序不夠時，就會出現(xiàn)盲點(diǎn)，更多令人擔(dān)憂的突變可能在廣泛傳播之前無法被發(fā)現(xiàn)。

Ravindra Gupta, a professor of clinical microbiology at the University of Cambridge, said: “It has all the hallmarks of the virus that we should be worried about.”

劍橋大學(xué)臨床微生物學(xué)教授拉文德拉·古普塔(Ravindra Gupta)說：“這種病毒具有我們應(yīng)該擔(dān)心的所有特征。”

First detected in the coastal Maharashtra state last year, the new variant has now been found in samples in 19 of the 27 states surveyed.

去年在沿海的馬哈拉施特拉邦首次發(fā)現(xiàn)了這種新變種，現(xiàn)在在調(diào)查的27個州中的19個州的樣本中發(fā)現(xiàn)了這種新變種。

Indian health officials have cautioned that it is too soon to attribute the nation's surge solely to such variants. Experts point out that the spread was catalysed by government decisions to not pause religious gatherings and crowded election rallies.

印度衛(wèi)生官員警告說，現(xiàn)在將印度的病例激增歸因于這種變種還為時過早。而專家們指出，政府決定不暫停宗教集會和擁擠的選舉集會，促成了這種傳播。

And now, the raging virus has infected many of the staff in the labs doing the work.

現(xiàn)在，肆虐的病毒已經(jīng)感染了實(shí)驗(yàn)室里許多從事這項(xiàng)工作的工作人員。