Vaccination falters
疫苗接种止步不前
Anti-vax fears drive a measles outbreak in Europe
对接种疫苗的恐惧促使了欧洲麻疹疫情的爆发
Immunity rates in parts of Europe are lower than in some African countries
欧洲部分地区的疫苗接种率低于非洲一些国家。
EACH year, as the summer winds down across Europe, so do measles cases—which tend to peak in late spring. August is, therefore, a good time to take stock of the measles season for the year.The tally for Europe, published on August 20th by the World Health Organisation, shows that cases in the first six months of 2018 exceeded the annual total for each of the past five years. About half of the 41,000 cases this year were in Ukraine. Infection rates also jumped in Serbia, Greece and Georgia. In recent years big outbreaks have erupted in Italy, Romania, France and Germany.
每年，随着夏季在欧洲接近尾声，常在春末达到峰值的麻疹疫情也会随之而去。因此，8月份是一年中评估麻疹季节的最佳时间。8月20日，世界卫生组织发布的欧洲统计数据显示，2018年上半年的麻疹病例超过了过5年的总和。在今年4.1万起病例中，大约有一半发生在乌克兰。塞尔维亚、希腊和格鲁吉亚的感染率也急剧上升。近年来，意大利、罗马尼亚、法国和德国爆发了大规模疫情。
None of this is a surprise. In the past decade, measles-vaccination rates in some European countries have often fallen below those in parts of Africa. Italy, France and Serbia, for example, have lower child-vaccinations rates than Burundi, Rwanda and Senegal. In some years,vaccine shortages were to blame, especially in parts of eastern Europe. Both Ukraine and Serbia have had irregular supplies of the MMR vaccine (which protects against measles, mumps and rubella) since 2014. Even after recent outbreaks, they were not able to procure enough doses to cover older cohorts, health-workers and other groups at risk of becoming infected.
所有这一切都不足为奇。在过去的十年中，欧洲一些国家的麻疹疫苗接种率往往低于非洲部分国家。例如，意大利、法国和塞尔维亚的儿童疫苗接种率低于布隆迪、卢旺达和塞内加尔。在某些年份，疫苗短缺是罪魁祸首，尤其是在东欧的部分地区。自2014年以来，乌克兰和塞尔维亚的MMR联合疫苗（预防麻疹、腮腺炎和风疹）供应不规律。即使在最近疫情爆发后，他们也无法获得足够的剂量来覆盖较老年患者、卫生工作者和面临感染麻疹风险的其他群体。
But suspicion of vaccines is also partly to blame. Unlike America, Europe does not have an organised “anti-vax”movement, but in many countries fears are much higher. Two-fifths of people in France—a country whose people pop antibiotics like sweets—believe that vaccines are unsafe. A quarter of Greeks and Ukrainians are also hostile. During recent outbreaks, some countries had dozens of health-workers coming down with measles—which suggest that they, too, may have a dim view of vaccines. A survey of French doctors in 2014, for example, found that nearly a quarter believed that some of the officially recommended vaccines were not useful.
但对疫苗持有怀疑态度也是部分原因。与美国不同，尽管欧洲没有一个有组织的“反对疫苗接种”运动，但欧洲许多国家民众的恐惧感要高得多。法国2/5的民众——该国民众如喜欢糖果一样滥用抗生素——认为疫苗是不安全的。1/4的希腊人和乌克兰人也反对注射疫苗。在最近的疫情爆发期间，一些国家有很多卫生工作者染上麻疹--这表明他们可能也对疫苗持有一种悲观看法。例如，2014年对法国医生进行的一项调查发现，近1/4的受访人员认为官方推荐的某些疫苗毫无用处。
Each country has “bespoke issues of concern”, says Heidi Larson of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. In Serbia and Ukraine mistaken beliefs that the MMR vaccine is linked with autism have led some doctors to delay the first dose (usually given at sixmonths of age) in order to be sure the child is developing normally. In some countries parents worry about several vaccines being given at the same time, so they space out jabs. France has a long history of vaccine rows. One reflected wrong ideas about the effects of the Hepatitis B vaccine. Some French doctors objected to a combined vaccine for infants, and to the HPV vaccine, which protects against cervical cancer.
伦敦卫生与热带医学院的海蒂·拉森（Heidi Larson）表示，每个国家都有“特定的关注问题”。塞尔维亚和乌克兰有些民众存有一些错误观念，认为MMR疫苗诱发自闭症，导致一些医生推迟注射首剂MMR联合疫苗（通常给六个月大的孩子注射），以确保孩子正常发育。在一些国家，父母担心给孩子同时注射几种疫苗会不利于健康，因此便分开时段接种疫苗。法国对疫苗注射的争论历史悠久。其中一个就反映出关于乙肝疫苗效果的错误观点。法国一些医生反对给婴儿注射联合疫苗，以及也反对预防宫颈癌的HPV疫苗。
Europe’s drive to end measles by 2015 was pushed back to 2020. Some hope.
欧洲到2015年消除麻疹的目标已经被推迟到2020年。这绝对不可能。（译：曹亚蒙）
https://www.economist.com/node/21748820
