【经济学人】Covid-19的多副面孔(2)

Patients brought into hospital with all the symptoms of a heart attack have later been found to be suffering from cardiac inflammation caused by the virus. It has also demonstrated that it can begin as a kidney infection, or even as menin'gitis（脑膜炎）, before sometimes going on to cause its characteristic respiratory problems.

$\bullet$ cardiac adj.心脏的；心脏病的

$\bullet$ kidney n.肾脏；腰子

$\bullet$ characteristic adj.特有的，典型的

$\bullet$ respirtory adj.呼吸的，呼吸用的

Precisely why SARS-COV-2 manifests itself in so many ways while all of the various strands of influenza present the same symptoms is not clear. But there are several theories. One proposed by Stanley Perlman, an immunologist at the University of Iowa, is that in actual fact, nothing odd is really going on（并没有发生什么奇怪的事）.

The novel virus's many faces are being noticed merely because it is a new disease and dangerous, and so is being studied intensely. He postulates that if influenza were looked at with equal intensity, it might also be shown to manifest in other ways —— as a mild winter stomach infection, for example.

$\bullet$ postulate vt.假设；要求；视……为理所当然 n.假设；基本条件

An idea suggested by William James, a virologist at the University of Oxford, is that the two-phase activity of SARS-COV-2, whereby it starts in the upper respiratory tract and then migrates deep into the lungs, is the critical factor that allows it to travel around the body.

$\bullet$ virologist n.病毒学家

$\bullet$ whereby adv.凭什么；靠哪个

$\bullet$ upper respiratory tract 上呼吸道

"Influenza rarely gets deep into the lungs," he says. "This new virus gets down there all the time." Since the lungs are designed to move gases in and out of the bloodstream (their highly vascularised airs sacs（囊） have a collective surface area（表面积）of about 50 square metres), viruses find it easy to make a similar journey.

$\bullet$ vascular adj.血管的

Dr Perlman agrees that this notion may be correct, but points out that the only way to be sure is to take samples from places other than the respiratory tract, in people suffering from early stages of the infection, to see if virus migration depends on getting to the lungs first.

As for why the disease sometimes makes its initial appearance in the digestive system, as it did in Dr DeBenedet's patient, this is probably because ACE2, the cell-surface protein that SARS-COV-2 binds to, is abundant in the gut as well as the lungs. How the virus gets through the highly acidic stomach unharmed is unknown. But clearly it can, and does.

$\bullet$ makes its initial appearance 首次出现

$\bullet$ bind vt.捆扎；约束；装订 vt/vi.（使）结合

bind up 包扎；装订

in a bind 处于困境

$\bullet$ gut n.内脏；肠子；胆量；海峡；剧情 vt.取出内脏

ACE2 is also found in the kidneys and the heart, which may help explain why symptoms manifest there, as well. By contrast, the entry molecules preferred by influenza viruses are almost exclusive to the upper respiratory tract. Knowing all this may make identification of the early stages of COVID-19 easier, and thus help to ease the plight of future cases like that of Dr DeBenedet's patient.

$\bullet$ plight n.困境；境况；誓约 vt.保证；约定