Opening Remarks to Commemorate World Health Day: Vector-borne Diseases

庆祝世界卫生日开幕词：病媒传播的疾病

Dr Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization

世界卫生组织总干事 陈冯富珍博士

Geneva, Switzerland

瑞士，日内瓦

7 April 2014

2014年4月7日

Distinguished guests, colleagues in public health, our staff, ladies and gentlemen,

尊敬的各位来宾、各位公共卫生同仁、我们的员工、女士们和先生们，

World Health Days provide an opportunity to focus world attention on a health problem or issue that deserves special attention. Vector-borne diseases are one such problem.

世界卫生日提供了一个机会，使世界注意力集中在值得特别注意的卫生问题或议题方面。病媒传播的疾病便是此类问题之一。

Holding these diseases at bay, and getting the upper hand, require multiple actions on multiple fronts. These are especially tenacious diseases that deliver a stern reminder of the dangers of complacency.

对这些疾病加以遏制和控制，需要多条战线采取多方行动。这些疾病都特别顽固，这严厉提醒我们自满情绪所具有的危险。

The massive use of insecticides in the 1940s and 1950s successfully brought many important vector-borne diseases under control, including yellow fever and, in several areas, malaria.

20世纪40年代和50年代大量使用杀虫剂，成功地控制住了许多重要的病媒传播疾病，包括黄热病和在若干地区存在的疟疾。

Complacency set in. Control programmes were dismantled. Resources dwindled. Expertise was lost. And the diseases roared back with a vengeance, and a vanished infrastructure for their control. For example, the worldwide incidence of dengue has increased 30-fold compared with the situation 50 years ago.

随后自满情况开始出现。控制规划遭到瓦解，资源减少，专门技能不复存在。这些疾病便猛烈地咆哮而归，可用来控制的基础设施却不复存在。例如，全世界登革热发病率比50年前增加了30倍。

Malaria, which is spread by mosquitoes, remains the best-known and biggest killer among vector-borne diseases. But there are others.

通过蚊子传播的疟疾，仍然是病媒传播疾病中众所周知的最大杀手。但也有其他疾病杀手。

Some, like dengue and yellow fever, tend to erupt in large outbreaks that can paralyze health systems and cause considerable economic and social disruption. Onchocerciasis causes blindness. Chikungunya causes severe joint pain that can last for weeks.

有些疾病，如登革热和黄热病，往往以大型疫情方式出现，可使卫生系统发生瘫痪，并对经济和社会造成巨大冲击。盘尾丝虫病可导致失明。基孔肯雅病可引起持续数周的严重关节疼痛。

Chagas disease in its late stage can cause heart failure and early death in young adults. Japanese encephalitis can permanently damage the central nervous system. Schistosomiasis, the most widespread of all these diseases, contributes to poor nutritional status and poor school performance.

南美锥虫病在晚期可导致心衰和青壮年早逝。日本脑炎可对中枢神经系统造成永久损害。血吸虫病在所有这些疾病中传播最广，它可引起营养状况不良和学习成绩欠佳。

Some forms of leishmaniasis are rapidly fatal. Others cause severe facial disfigurement. Of the 120 million people currently infected with lymphatic filariasis, around 40 million are disfigured and incapacitated by the disease.

某些形式的利什曼病可迅速毙命。其他形式则会造成严重毁容。在目前感染淋巴丝虫病的1.2亿人中，约有4000万人遭到毁容，或因得病而丧失工作能力。

Lost productivity is one consequence. Stigma and social exclusion are additional sources of misery, especially for women.

丧失生产力是一个后果。耻辱感和社会排斥则是痛苦的另外起因，对妇女而言尤其如此。

In another worrisome trend, vectors in several countries are developing resistance to a highly effective class of insecticides that is also the most affordable.

另一令人担忧的趋势是，一些国家的病媒正在对最具有负担性的高效类杀虫剂产生耐药性。

Vectors thrive under conditions where housing is poor, water is unsafe, and environments are contaminated with filth. Vector-borne diseases exact their heaviest toll on the poor, the people left behind by development. Measures that control the vectors provide an excellent, but underutilized opportunity to help these people catch up.

病媒在水不安全和环境肮脏的条件下大量滋生。病媒传播疾病对穷人和被发展抛在后面的人们造成的危害最大。控制病媒传播疾病的措施为帮助这些人追赶上来提供了极好机会，可这种机会却没得到充分利用。

We need to recreate the momentum for vector control and the fundamental capacities that underpin it. These include staff with technical expertise, stronger surveillance systems, and better laboratory infrastructure.

我们需要重新创立病媒控制的势头，以及用来支持这一控制的基本能力。这包括具有技术专长的工作人员、强有力的监控系统以及更好的实验室基础设施。

For vector-borne diseases, control programmes never tread water. They either surge ahead or they sink.

对于病媒传播的疾病而言，控制规划从不踩水。它们要么冲向前，要么沉下去。

This World Health Day is a reminder of the urgent need to act before an alarming situation deteriorates any further.

今年的世界卫生日提醒我们，在令人震惊的局势继续出现恶化之前，迫切需要行动起来。

Taking action is entirely feasible. WHO promotes integrated vector management as the best approach to strengthen vector control. The approach uses a range of interventions, from indoor residual spraying to the use of natural insect predators, in combination and in a value-added way.

采取行动是完全可行的。世卫组织将病媒综合管理作为强化病媒控制的最佳方法加以推动。这一方法以组合和增值的方式，采用从室内残留喷洒到利用昆虫天敌等一系列干预措施。

The control of vector-borne diseases can make a major contribution to poverty reduction, as it precisely targets the poor.

控制病媒传播疾病，可为减贫做出很大贡献，因为它的目标恰恰是穷人。

It is my sincere wish that this World Health Day will invigorate vector control and give it the high profile it deserves. No one in the 21st century should die from the bite of a mosquito, a sandfly, a blackfly, or a tick.

我真诚地希望今年世界卫生日会对病媒控制带来生气，并对这项工作给予应有的重视。任何人在21世纪都不应因蚊子、白蛉、黑蝇或蜱的叮咬而死亡。

Thank you.

谢谢各位。