Mosquitoes don’t practice social distancing. They don’t wear masks, either.As COVID-19 spreads across the globe, it’s important to remember that deadly mosquito-borne diseases like malaria haven’t taken a break during this pandemic.随着新冠肺炎席卷全球，重要的是要记得像疟疾这样的致命蚊媒疾病，并没有在这场大流行期间休息片刻。
Mosquitoes are out biting every night, infecting millions of people with malaria—a disease that kills a child every other minute of every day.蚊子每晚都会出来叮人，使数百万人感染疟疾——这种疾病每隔一分钟就会造成一名儿童死亡。
Most of these deaths occur in the poorest countries with the weakest health systems. Now, they face the added burden of halting the coronavirus. And in many of these countries, COVID-19 cases are likely to peak at the worst possible time: the height of their malaria transmission seasons.这些死亡大多发生在最贫穷、卫生系统最薄弱的国家。现在，他们还要面对抗击新冠病毒的额外负担。在大部分这类国家中，新冠肺炎病例数可能在最糟糕的时候达到顶峰：疟疾的传播高峰期。
During the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, endemic diseases like malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS contributed to many more deaths than Ebola because the epidemic disrupted local health care systems. Health officials fear the same could happen with COVID-19.2014年西非埃博拉疫情期间，由于疫情扰乱了当地的医疗体系，疟疾、结核病和艾滋病等地方性流行病比埃博拉造成了更多的死亡。卫生官员担心同样的情况也会发生在新冠疫情期间。
Lockdowns and social distancing regulations have already made it difficult for health workers to provide malaria prevention and treatment in many parts of Africa. There have also been interruptions to supplies of essential malaria tools – like bed nets, anti-malaria medicines, and rapid diagnostic tests – that have been instrumental in cutting malaria deaths by more than half since 2000.在非洲的许多地区，封锁和保持社交距离等措施已经使卫生工作者难以提供疟疾预防和治疗服务。此外还有像蚊帐、抗疟药物和快速诊断试剂这种基本疟疾防治工具的断供，而这些工具一直以来发挥着举足轻重的作用，使疟疾死亡人数从2000年到现在减少了一半以上。
Now that incredible progress may be in jeopardy. A recent modeling analysis from the World Health Organization found that if essential malaria prevention and treatment services are severely disrupted by the pandemic, malaria deaths in sub-Saharan Africa would reach mortality levels not seen since 2000. That year, an estimated 764,000 people died from malaria in Africa, most of them children.如今，这一了不起的进展可能受到威胁。一项最近由世界卫生组织做出的建模分析发现，如果基本的疟疾预防和治疗服务受到大流行的严重干扰，撒哈拉以南非洲地区的疟疾死亡人数将达到2000年以来的最高水平。在那一年，非洲估计有76.4万人死于疟疾，其中大多数是儿童。
There is not a choice between saving lives from COVID-19 versus saving lives from malaria. The world must enable these countries to do both. Health officials urgently need to step up to the challenge of controlling the pandemic while also making sure that malaria, as well as other diseases like HIV and tuberculosis, are not neglected.你无法选择是从新冠肺炎还是疟疾挽救生命。全世界必须让这些国家能够同时做到这两点。卫生官员迫切需要为控制大流行采取措施，同时还要确保疟疾及像艾滋病和结核病这样的其他疾病不被忽视。
For malaria, that means continuing with campaigns to deliver long-lasting insecticide-treated bed nets, control mosquito populations with indoor spraying, and provide preventive treatment for pregnant women and children in high-risk communities. At the same time, health workers must deliver these services while not putting their communities at risk of the coronavirus.
就疟疾而言，这意味着继续现有的举措，提供长效驱虫蚊帐，通过室内喷药控制蚊子数量，以及为高风险社区的孕妇和儿童提供预防性治疗。与此同时，卫生工作者在提供这些服务的时候，必须不能使他们的社区陷入感染新冠病毒的危险境地。
The good news is that many countries are finding ways to maintain key malaria programs even in the face of the pandemic. In Benin, a country in West Africa with one of the highest burdens of malaria in the world, the government teamed up with Catholic Relief Services and our foundation this year to develop a new, innovative way to distribute bed nets across the country. Using smartphones, real time data collection, and satellite mapping, Benin has helped ensure that all families, no matter where they live, will be protected by a bed net at night. And scientists haven’t paused research efforts to find new ways to prevent malaria and control mosquito population, like those underway at “Mosquito City” in Tanzania 好消息是，即使在大流行面前，许多国家也在想方设法维持关键的疟疾防治项目。贝宁是西非受疟疾影响最严重的国家之一，其政府今年同天主教救济服务组织及我们的基金会合作，开发了一种新的、独创的方法，可以在全国范围内分发蚊帐。贝宁政府利用智能手机、实时数据收集和卫星地图，帮助确保所有家庭无论住在哪里，都能在夜里得到蚊帐的保护。此外，科学家们一刻也没有停止科研努力，目标是找到预防疟疾和控制蚊子数量的新方法，例如正在坦桑尼亚“蚊子城”进行的研究。
What’s exciting to see is how some existing malaria programs are also helping to control COVID-19. For example, emergency operations centers that track outbreaks of malaria in Africa are now being used monitor the spread of COVID-19. By tracking the shape and movement of the pandemic across countries and regions, health officials are also able to deepen their understanding of health conditions in communities that will, in turn, help improve their responses to malaria in those areas. 令人兴奋的是，一些现有的疟疾防治项目也在帮助控制新冠疫情。例如，追踪非洲疟疾疫情的紧急行动中心，现在正被用来监测新冠肺炎的传播。通过追踪新冠疫情在各国和各区域的状态和传播轨迹，卫生官员得以加深对社区卫生状况的了解，这反过来又有助于改善他们对这些地区疟疾疫情的应对。
The progress the world has made against malaria is one of the greatest global health success stories. The COVID-19 pandemic only reinforces why eradicating malaria is so essential. So long as malaria exists, it will continue to flare up and burden the most vulnerable communities. Ridding the world of preventable, treatable diseases like malaria will save millions of lives and lead to healthier, more prosperous communities. And that will make them better prepared to confront any new health challenges like COVID-19 in the future.全世界在抗击疟疾方面取得的进展，是全球卫生领域最伟大的成就之一。但新冠肺炎大流行让人们更加认识到根除疟疾有多么的必要。只要疟疾还存在一天，它就会继续肆虐，就会加重那些最脆弱社区的负担。让世界摆脱像疟疾这样可预防、可治疗的疾病，将挽救数百万人的生命，并让社区变得更健康、更繁荣。这也将使他们处于更有利的位置，预备在未来抵御任何像新冠肺炎这样的卫生新挑战。