VOA慢速英语 | Health Report基孔肯雅热——又一种病毒在蔓延
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From VOA Learning English, this is the Health and Lifestyle report.
A virus with a strange-sounding name has been around for a long time but only in parts of the world. Now, chikungunya is traveling the world.
Health officials first identified chikungunya in 1952 in East Africa. In the language of that area, chikungunya means "to walk bent over." That describes people suffering from this disease.
Chikungunya starts like the flu. Sufferers get fever, and head and muscle pain. Some people also develop a skin condition. But what separates chikungunya from other viruses is the extreme pain and swelling in the joints of hands and feet.
Doctor Scott Weaver is director of the Institute for Human Infections and Immunity at the University of Texas in the United States. He explains how this virus differs from other flu-like sicknesses.
"It starts off like many other flu-like infectious diseases with fever and headache and body aches. But what distinguishes it from most others is that the pain is focused on the small joints like the hands, the wrists and the ankles. And that's accompanied by swelling. And the combination of swelling and pain can leave people pretty severely incapacitated."
Chikungunya rarely kills. But it can incapacitate people who get it, meaning they can barely move.
Some sufferers complain of joint pain for months -- even years. When this virus infects a community, it has the ability to shut it down.
译文
来自美国之音慢速英语，这是健康和生活方式报告。
有着奇怪的名字的病毒已经存在很长时间，但世界上只有部分地区出现。现在，基孔肯雅热正在全球范围内传播。
卫生官员1952年东非地区首次发现基孔肯雅热。在这一领域的语言中，基孔肯亚病意味着要“弯着腰走路”， 这描述了患这种疾病的人。
基孔肯亚病刚开始像流感一样，伴随着发烧和头痛,肌肉痛，有些人还会反应在皮肤上。但与其他病毒的区别是基孔肯亚热患者在手和脚关节处会有极端的疼痛和肿胀。
医生斯科特韦弗是美国的德克萨斯大学人类感染研究所和免疫研究所的所长，他解释了这种病毒与其他类似流感的疾病之间的区别：
“它刚开始像许多其他类似流感的传染性疾病一样伴随着发热、 头痛和全身酸痛，但与其他疾病的区别在于它的疼痛集中在像手、 手腕和脚踝这样的小关节，并伴随着肿胀和疼痛的双重折磨，可以让人严重的丧失行为能力。
基孔肯亚病很少造成死亡，但它可以使患此病的人丧失行为能力，这意味着他们会动弹不得。
有些患者抱怨关节疼痛会持续数月，甚至几年。当这种病毒感染一个社区时，它有能力让其关闭。
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