To determine if there are sex differences in susceptibility to infection would require an unethical experiment:expose 1,000 otherwise similar men and women to the virus and see who gets sick.

　　要確定對(duì)感染的易感性是否存在性別差異，需要進(jìn)行一項(xiàng)不道德的實(shí)驗(yàn):讓1000名身體情況相似的男性和女性接觸這種病毒，然后看看誰(shuí)會(huì)得病。

　　The difference is fatality rates,however,is real:1.7%for women and 2.8%for men,China CDC reported.

　　然而，中國(guó)疾病預(yù)防控制中心的報(bào)告顯示，致死率的差別是真實(shí)存在的:女性為1.7%，男性為2.8%。

　　Sick or healthy

　　已患其他疾病和健康者的比較

　　The male-female difference in fatality rates,and perhaps in reported incidence,may arise from differences in underlying health.People with pre-existing illness are more likely to get seriously ill from Covid-19,and men have a higher incidence of such chronic illnesses as cardiovascular disease.

　　死亡率和報(bào)告發(fā)病率的男女差異可能源于基本健康狀況的差異�；加屑韧�疾病的人更容易因Covid-19而發(fā)展為重癥，男性罹患諸如心血管疾病等慢性疾病的重癥幾率更高。

　　In the first large study of the effect of underlying illness,researchers in China analyzed 1,590 patients from throughout the country with laboratory-confirmed disease.They calculated how“co-morbidities”—existing illnesses—affected the risk of being admitted to intensive care,being put on a ventilator,or dying.

　　在對(duì)潛在疾病影響的第一項(xiàng)大型研究中，中國(guó)的研究人員分析了來(lái)自全國(guó)各地的1,590名確診的患者。他們計(jì)算了“并發(fā)癥”(即現(xiàn)有疾病)如何影響接受重癥監(jiān)護(hù)，使用呼吸機(jī)或死亡的概率。

　　After taking into account the patients'ages and smoking status,the researchers found that the 399 patients with at least one additional disease(including cardiovascular diseases,diabetes,hepatitis B,chronic obstructive pulmonary disease,chronic kidney diseases,and cancer)had a 79%greater chance of requiring intensive care or a respirator or both,or of dying,they reported last week in a paper posted to medRxiv,a preprint site that posts research before it has been peer-reviewed.The 130 with two or more additional diseases had 2.5 times the risk of any of those outcomes.

　　在考慮了患者的年齡和吸煙情況后，研究人員上周在medRxiv網(wǎng)站上發(fā)表了一篇論文，稱(chēng)他們發(fā)現(xiàn)，399名至少有一種額外疾病(包括心血管疾病、糖尿病、乙型肝炎、慢性阻塞性肺病、慢性腎病和癌癥)的患者需要重癥監(jiān)護(hù)或使用呼吸器或兩者都需要，或死亡的幾率要高出79%�；加袃煞N或兩種以上附加疾病的130名患者發(fā)生上述任何一種結(jié)果的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)是2.5倍。

　　That fits with what's known about other respiratory viruses.People with a single co-morbidity who catch avian flu(H7N9)are 3.4 times more likely than otherwise-healthy flu patients to require ventilators and other intensive care.SARS and MERS,which are also caused by coronaviruses,are more severe in patients with underlying illnesses,too.

　　這與我們對(duì)其他呼吸道病毒的了解相符。與其他健康的流感患者相比，感染H7N9的單一合并病患者需要呼吸器和其他重癥護(hù)理的可能性高3.4倍。由冠狀病毒引起的SARS和中東呼吸綜合征(MERS)對(duì)有潛在疾病的患者也更為嚴(yán)重。

　　Breaking down the Covid-19 risk with the most common co-morbidities,the scientists found that cancer raises the risk 3.5-fold,COPD 2.6-fold,and diabetes and hypertension by about 60%.Because it isn't unusual for someone to have an underlying disease(especially diabetes and hypertension)but not know it,the last figure is likely an underestimate.

　　以最常見(jiàn)的并發(fā)癥來(lái)分解Covid-19風(fēng)險(xiǎn)后，科學(xué)家發(fā)現(xiàn)癌癥將風(fēng)險(xiǎn)提高了3.5倍，COPD提高了2.6倍，糖尿病和高血壓的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)提高了約60%。由于某人患有其他疾病(尤其是糖尿病和高血壓)，但并不知道，因此最后的數(shù)字可能被低估了。

　　Co-morbidities also raise the risk of dying from Covid-19.China CDC's analysis of 44,672 patients found that the fatality rate in patients who reported no other health conditions was 0.9%.It was 10.5%for those with cardiovascular disease,7.3%for those with diabetes,6.3%for people with chronic respiratory diseases such as COPD,6.0%for people with hypertension,and 5.6%for those with cancer.

　　并發(fā)癥也增加了死于Covid-19的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)。中國(guó)疾病預(yù)防控制中心對(duì)44672例患者的分析發(fā)現(xiàn)，未報(bào)告其他健康狀況的患者的死亡率為0.9%�；加行难�管疾病的人占10.5%，患有糖尿病的人占7.3%，患有慢性阻塞性肺病等慢性呼吸道疾病的人占6.3%，患有高血壓的人占6.0%，患有癌癥的人占5.6%。

　　Underlying disease might change the course of Covid-19.During the height of the epidemic in Wuhan,37 of 230 patients receiving dialysis for kidney failure at Remnin Hospital developed the disease.Even though none were sick enough to require intensive care or a mechanical ventilator,six of them died,for a very high fatality rate of 16%.Oddly,however,none of the six died of pneumonia,Remnin researchers reported.Instead,the causes of death were heart disease,stroke,and high blood levels of potassium(a result of kidney failure).The high fatality rate of Covid-19 in already-sick people might result not from the virus but from an exacerbation of existing disease.

　　潛在疾病可能會(huì)改變Covid-19的病程。在武漢疫情高峰期間，武漢人民醫(yī)院接受腎衰竭透析的230名患者中有37名患上了這種疾病。即使沒(méi)有人病到需要重癥監(jiān)護(hù)或使用機(jī)械呼吸機(jī)，也有6人死亡，死亡率高達(dá)16%。不過(guò)，人民醫(yī)院研究人員報(bào)告說(shuō)，奇怪的是，這六人中沒(méi)有一個(gè)人死于肺炎。相反，死亡原因是心臟病，中風(fēng)和高血鉀水平(腎衰竭的結(jié)果)。已經(jīng)患病的人中Covid-19的高死亡率可能不是由于病毒引起的，而是由于現(xiàn)有疾病的加劇而引起的。

　　About 60%of U.S.adults have at least one underlying health condition,Tom Frieden,former director of the U.S.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,told reporters on Monday.

　　美國(guó)疾病控制與預(yù)防中心前主任Tom Frieden周一對(duì)記者說(shuō)，大約60%的美國(guó)成年人患有至少一種潛在疾病。

　　Pregnancy

　　懷孕帶來(lái)的影響

　　In early February,Chinese state media reported that a woman infected with the virus gave birth to a baby who later tested positive for it.Newborns might become infected because of close proximity to a patient,like anyone else,but the case raised fears that a pregnant woman can transmit the virus to her fetus via the placenta.

　　2月初，中國(guó)官方媒體報(bào)道說(shuō)，一名感染該病毒的婦女生了一個(gè)嬰兒，后來(lái)對(duì)其進(jìn)行了陽(yáng)性檢測(cè)。新生兒可能會(huì)因?yàn)榕c其他患者一樣靠近患者而被感染，但此案使人們擔(dān)心孕婦會(huì)通過(guò)胎盤(pán)將病毒傳播給胎兒。

　　Only one small study has investigated such“vertical transmission.”Scientists at Wuhan University found that,of nine pregnant patients infected with the virus(all had a caesarean section)in their third trimester,none seemed to pass the virus to their babies,all of whom scored at the top of the Apgar scale of newborn health.

　　只有一項(xiàng)小型研究調(diào)查了這種“垂直傳播”。武漢大學(xué)的科學(xué)家們發(fā)現(xiàn)，在9名妊娠晚期感染病毒的孕婦中(所有人都進(jìn)行了剖腹產(chǎn))，似乎沒(méi)有人將病毒傳給他們的嬰兒，他們的新生兒健康評(píng)分都排在阿普加(Apgar)量表的前列。

　　As for the mothers,“Covid-19 seems not to be especially severe in pregnant women,at least based on the small number in this study,”the scientists wrote.That was somewhat surprising because pregnancy suppresses the immune system(so it doesn't attack the fetus);pregnant women are more susceptible to respiratory pathogens than non-pregnant women.Nevertheless,none of the nine women developed severe Covid-19 pneumonia.

　　至于母親，“Covid-19似乎在孕婦中并不特別嚴(yán)重，至少根據(jù)這項(xiàng)研究中的少量數(shù)據(jù)，”科學(xué)家寫(xiě)道。這有點(diǎn)令人驚訝，因?yàn)閼言袝?huì)抑制免疫系統(tǒng)(所以它不會(huì)攻擊胎兒);孕婦比非孕婦更容易感染呼吸道病原體。然而，這9名婦女均未出現(xiàn)嚴(yán)重的Covid-19肺炎。

　　It may be that immuno-suppression is actually helpful.Some of the most serious symptoms of Covid-19 result from an immune system on the rampage rather than a lethargic one,Chinese scientists found:An extreme immune response called cytokine storm,a flood of immune cells and the biochemicals they produce,tears through lung tissue.

　　也許免疫抑制實(shí)際上是有幫助的。中國(guó)科學(xué)家發(fā)現(xiàn)，covid-19最嚴(yán)重的一些癥狀是由免疫系統(tǒng)失控而非免疫失效引起的:一種被稱(chēng)為細(xì)胞因子風(fēng)暴的極端免疫反應(yīng)，大量的免疫細(xì)胞及其產(chǎn)生的生化物質(zhì)撕裂肺組織。