治疗中心紧缺 利比里亚埃博拉患者家中惨死

MONROVIA, Liberia — The family of the sick man, who had endured Ebola’s telltale symptoms for six days, took him by taxi to treatment centers here in the capital twice, only to be turned back at the gate each time for lack of beds. He died at home, his arms thrashing violently and blood spewing out of his mouth, in front of his sons.

利比里亚蒙罗维亚——一名患病男子的家人两次坐着出租车将他带到这里的治疗中心，但每次都因为缺少床位而被挡在治疗中心门口，而他已经连续六天出现感染埃博拉病毒的症状。最终，这名男子死在家中，他的儿子们看到了他手臂狂舞、口吐鲜血的惨状。

“We had to carry him home two times because they could do nothing for us,” said Eric Gweah, 25, as a team of body collectors came to retrieve the corpse of his father, Ofori Gweah, 62. “The only thing the government can do is come for bodies. They are killing us.”

“这两次我们都得把他带回家，因为他们不能为我们做什么，”25岁的埃里克·格威(Eric Gweah)说。“政府唯一能做的就是来收尸。他们正在杀死我们。”格威接受采访时，一个收尸队来到家中为他62岁的父亲奥福里·格威(Ofori Gweah)收尸。

So many Ebola victims are dying at home because of the severe shortage of treatment centers here in Monrovia, Liberia‘s capital, that they are infecting family members, neighbors and others in a ballooning circle of contagion.

由于利比里亚首都蒙罗维亚严重缺少治疗中心，很多埃博拉患者正在家中慢慢死去，并去感染家人、邻居，以及其他处于传染范围内的人，致使传染范围不断扩展。

Only 18 percent of Ebola patients in Liberia are being cared for in hospitals, holding centers or other settings that reduce the risk of transmission by isolating them from the rest of the population, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Unless that rate reaches 70 percent, the center predicted this week, Ebola cases will keep soaring.

据美国疾病控制与预防中心(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)透露，在利比里亚，只有18%的埃博拉病人在医院、收容中心或其他将他们隔离以降低传染风险的场所接受治疗。该中心本周预测，除非这个比率达到70%，否则埃博拉病例将持续攀升。

In its worst-case estimate, Liberia and Sierra Leone, two of the three West African nations hit hardest by the outbreak, could face 1.4 million infections by Jan. 20 — more than 10 percent of their combined populations of about 10.3 million.

该中心预测的最糟糕的情况是，在埃博拉疫情最严重的三个西非国家中，利比里亚和塞拉利昂在明年1月20日前可能会出现140万感染病例，高于两国总人口（1030万）的10%。

In the coming weeks, the United States military will try to overhaul the fight against Ebola in Liberia, home to 1,580 of the 2,800 Ebola deaths so far recorded in West Africa. The 3,000-strong American mission will not treat Ebola patients, but will build as many as 17 treatment centers, with a total of 1,700 beds, and try to train 500 health workers a week.

迄今为止，西非共有2800名埃博拉患者死亡，其中有1580人来自利比里亚。在未来几周，美国军队将设法对利比里亚抗击埃博拉疫情的斗争做出大幅调整。一个由3000名军人组成的美国团队不会参与埃博拉患者的治疗工作，但他们将会建设多达17个治疗中心，1700个床位，并会设法每周培训500名医务人员。

But building the centers is expected to take weeks and it is unclear who will run them, especially since the disease has decimated Liberia’s already weak health care system and the fear of Ebola has long kept many international aid workers away.

但建造治疗中心需要数周时间，目前也不清楚治疗中心由谁运营，尤其是因为埃博拉已经摧毁了利比里亚原本就非常脆弱的医疗系统，而很多国际救援人员又害怕被感染，一直不愿进入该国工作。

“I’ve worked in many crises for more than 20 years, and it’s the first time I can see a situation that nobody wants to come,” said Jean-Pierre Veyrenche, who is heading the World Health Organization’s efforts to build treatment centers here. “There’s plenty of money, so that’s not the issue. If you look at Haiti, there were about 800 N.G.O.s there.”

“在20多年的时间里，我经历了很多危机，这是第一次看到没人愿意来的情况，”负责世界卫生组织(World Health Organization)蒙罗维亚治疗中心项目的让-皮埃尔·韦朗齐(Jean-Pierre Veyrenche)说。“我们有充足的资金，这不是问题。看看海地，那里有大约800家非政府组织。”

“People are afraid to come — that’s it,” he added.

他还表示，“人们不敢来，这是问题所在。”

With treatment beds overflowing, the government is often left to simply pick up the bodies of the dead. As its six teams of body collectors crisscross this capital of 1.5 million people, navigating cratered streets left over from the 14-year civil war that ended in 2003, they encounter a city that is likely to remain at the mercy of Ebola for weeks, perhaps months.

由于治疗中心床位不足，政府通常只能收尸。六支收尸队在这个拥有150万人口的首都往返奔波，穿过那些在内战期间变得坑坑洼洼的道路，他们看到的这个城市在未来几周甚或几个月，可能仍会受到埃博拉疫情的困扰。该国那场长达14年的内战是在2003年终结的。

Every day, each team retrieves half a dozen to a couple of dozen bodies, delivering them to a crematorium at the end of the day.

每支收尸队每天会收走五、六具到二十几具尸体，然后在当天晚上将尸体送往火葬场。

The body collectors who came to pick up Mr. Gweah had descended to the compound where he lived four times in the past four weeks, down a steep cliff to a riverside area called Rockspring Valley. Each week, they had picked up a body that passed on the Ebola virus to the next person, and now Mr. Gweah’s was the fifth body. The crowd, seething beneath a sky of low clouds, erupted in anger.

前来收走格威尸体的收尸员在过去四周曾四次来到他所在的居住区，他们沿着陡峭山崖向下来到这个名为石泉谷(Rockspring Valley)的沿江地区。他们每周都会收走一具尸体，而逝者已将埃博拉病毒传染给下一个人，格威是他们在这里收走的第五具尸体。在云层低垂的天空下，激动的人群爆发愤怒情绪。

“If the government can’t work it out, let them give it up,” said Marvin Gweah, 28, another son. “Let the international community handle this.”

“如果政府不能应付，就让他们放弃，”另一个儿子、28岁的马尔温·格威(Marvin Gweah)说。“让国际社会来处理。”

Five body collectors in full protective suits clambered up the cliff in the rain, carrying his father’s body in a black plastic bag, resting to readjust their grip, and steadying themselves on the slippery path. Eric Gweah, his face twisted in anguish, led the way, shrieking “Papa” and throwing his hands up in the air, nearly losing his footing.

天下着雨，身着全套防护服的五名收尸员爬上山崖，抬着装在黑色塑料袋里的他父亲的遗体。他们有时会停下来喘口气，在湿滑的道路上稳住脚步。埃里克·格威的脸因痛苦而扭曲，他走在队伍的最前面，口中高呼“爸爸呀”，双手举起，差点摔倒。

“Stand up! Stand up!” a woman following the body collectors shouted at another woman who had fainted. A cacophony of wailing and sobbing rose as all of Rockspring Valley below seemed to sway in grief.

“站起来！站起来！”跟在收尸员身后的一名妇女朝着晕倒的另一女性吼道。刺耳的哭喊声和啜泣声响成一片，此时脚下的整座石泉谷似乎都已陷入悲伤之中。

A new 120-bed treatment center, Island Clinic, operated by Liberian health workers under the W.H.O., opened here on Sunday, bringing Liberia’s total beds to 450. The agency is hoping to open two additional centers with a total of 400 beds here in the capital over the next month, but is unable to find international workers to operate them, said Mr. Veyrenche, who is heading the W.H.O.’s efforts to build treatment centers here.

在世卫组织的指导下，利比里亚医疗工作者管理的岛屿诊所(Island Clinic)周日开始在蒙罗维亚迎接病患。这座新医疗中心有120个床位，从而将利比里亚的总床位数增至450张。世卫组织希望，一个月内能在首都地区再开两座医疗中心，共计400张床位。不过，负责在利比里亚兴建医疗中心的世卫组织官员韦朗齐表示，无法找到国际人员来接手这些诊所的运转工作。

Last week in Bong County, in central Liberia, the International Medical Corps began operating a treatment center built by Save the Children. The Medical Corps and Doctors Without Borders are the only international organizations operating treatment centers in Liberia.

在利比里亚中部的邦县，上周，国际医疗队(International Medical Corps)开始掌管救助儿童会(Save the Children)兴建的一座医疗中心。国际医疗队和无国界医生组织(Doctors Without Borders)是仅有的两个在利比里亚运营诊疗中心的国际组织。

Sean Casey, the leader of the Medical Corps in Liberia, said he hoped to increase the center’s current capacity of 10 beds to 70 beds over the next six weeks. But because of the fear of Ebola and the time commitment required of foreign volunteers, the organization has been unable to draw doctors and nurses from its usual pool, he said. The organization is recruiting health workers for the first time in the Philippines, Jordan and Ethiopia.

国际医疗队利比里亚项目的负责人肖恩·卡塞伊(Sean Casey)称，他希望在未来的六周里将这家诊所目前的10张床位增加到70张。然而他说，出于对埃博拉的恐惧，以及外国志愿者需要在当地耗费的时长，国际医疗队一直无法从往常的医护人员库中找到足够的志愿者。该组织正在从菲律宾、约旦和埃塞俄比亚招募医护人员，此举尚属首次。

Like most experts here, Mr. Casey was skeptical of the American military’s plans to find and train 500 health workers a week.

与身处这里的多数专家一样，卡塞伊对美国军方提出的每周招到并培训500名医疗工作者的计划心存疑虑。

“It took us a few weeks to just open 10 beds,” he said. “It worries me that some of their facilities will be open before they’re ready.”

“就连弄出这10张床位，我们都花了好几星期，”他说。“我担心他们的一些中心会在没有准备好的情况下启动。”

Here in Monrovia, the first city to face Ebola’s full onslaught since the virus was discovered in 1976, entire families are dying at home, unable to get a ride in one of the city’s few ambulances or gain admission to overcrowded treatment or holding centers.

自从1976年发现埃博拉病毒以来，蒙罗维亚是第一座要面对它的全面爆发的城市。这里的整户人家在自己家中死亡，无法搭上城里稀缺的救护车，或是进入过于拥挤的医疗和收容中心。

“We came here for the husband last week, we’re back today for the wife, and maybe next week we’ll be back for the children,” said Alexander Nyanti, 23, a body collector who was picking up the corpse of Lorpu David, 30, in a central Monrovia neighborhood off Gurley Street.

“我们上个星期来给丈夫收殓，今天又来收妻子，说不定下个星期又要来收孩子，”23岁的收尸员亚历山大·尼安蒂(Alexander Nyanti)说。他来到蒙罗维亚市中心格利街附近的这片社区，是为了给30岁的洛普·戴维(Lorpu David)收殓。

A week earlier, his team had visited the same house to retrieve the body of her husband, Sam David, the first Ebola death in that community. The couple shared one room with their two children and the wife’s younger sister.

一周前，尼安蒂所在的收尸队来过同一间屋子给丈夫萨姆·戴维(Sam David)收殓。他是这片社区里首名死于埃博拉病毒的患者。这对夫妇和两个孩子及妻子的妹妹同住一间房。

“The little boy is not feeling all right,” John Sackie, the community’s chairman, said as four collectors pulled Ms. David out of a dark room in the back of the house, each grasping a limb.

“小男孩不太舒服，”社区主任约翰·萨基(John Sackie)说。此时，四名收尸员分别抓着戴维夫人的四肢，将她的尸体从屋子后面一间昏暗的房间里拖了出来。