專家：新冠病毒變異後更具傳染性 但是致死率可能下降了

新冠病毒的變異毒株D614G已經入侵歐洲、北美和馬來西亞、新加坡等亞洲部分地區，據稱這種變異毒株的傳染性比原病毒高出10倍，還有人擔心目前在研發的疫苗可能對變異毒株無效。

An increasingly common mutation of the novel coronavirus found in Europe, North America and parts of Asia may be more infectious but appears less deadly, according to a prominent infectious diseases doctor.

一位傑出的傳染病醫師指出，在歐洲、北美和亞洲部分地區發現的一種日益常見的新冠病毒變異體可能更具傳染性，但似乎沒有那麼致命。

Paul Tambyah, senior consultant at the National University of Singapore and president-elect of the International Society of Infectious Diseases, said evidence suggests the proliferation of the D614G mutation in some parts of the world has coincided with a drop in death rates, suggesting it is less lethal.

新加坡國立大學的高級顧問、國際傳染病學會的候任主席保羅·坦布亞表示，有證據顯示，D614G變異毒株在世界部分地區擴散的同時，致死率也下降了，這意味着這種新冠病毒變異體沒那麼致命。

"Maybe that's a good thing to have a virus that is more infectious but less deadly," Tambyah told Reuters.

坦布亞告訴路透社說：“病毒更具傳染性但卻沒那麼致命，這也許是件好事。”

Tambyah said most viruses tend to become less virulent as they mutate.

坦布亞說，大多數病毒在變異過程中毒性都會降低。

"It is in the virus' interest to infect more people but not to kill them because a virus depends on the host for food and for shelter," he said.

他說：“病毒感染更多人但卻不殺死他們，這對病毒有利，因爲病毒依賴宿主才能得到食物和庇護所。”

Scientists discovered the mutation as early as February and it has circulated in Europe and the Americas, the World Health Organization said. The WHO has also said there is no evidence the mutation has led to more severe disease.

世界衛生組織稱，科學家早在二月份就發現病毒變異，當時變異毒株在歐洲和美洲傳播。世衛組織還表示，沒有證據表明變異毒株會引發更嚴重的疾病。

On Sunday, Malaysia's director-general of health Noor Hisham Abdullah urged greater public vigilance after authorities detected what they believe was the D614G mutation of the coronavirus in two recent clusters.

8月16日，馬來西亞的權威部門在最近的兩起聚集性疫情中檢測出新冠病毒D614G變種後，馬來西亞衛生局局長努爾·希沙姆·阿卜杜拉敦促公衆提高警惕。

Sebastian Maurer-Stroh of Singapore's agency for science, technology and research said the variant has also been found in the city-state but that containment measures have prevented large-scale spread.

新加坡科技研究局的塞巴斯蒂安·毛雷爾-斯特羅稱，在新加坡也發現了這一變種，但是新加坡採取的控制措施防止了該變種大規模擴散。

Malaysia's Noor Hisham said the D614G strain detected there was 10 times more infectious and that vaccines currently in development may not be effective against this mutation.

馬來西亞的努爾·希沙姆說，在馬來西亞檢測到的D614G毒株的傳染性比原病毒高出10倍，目前正在研發中的疫苗可能對該變種無效。

But Tambyah and Maurer-Stroh said such mutations would not likely change the virus enough to make potential vaccines less effective.

但是坦布亞和毛雷爾-斯特羅稱，這種變異對病毒的改變不足以讓潛在的疫苗減少效力。

"(The) variants are almost identical and did not change areas that our immune system typically recognise, so there shouldn't be any difference for vaccines being developed," said Maurer-Stroh.

毛雷爾-斯特羅稱：“變種和原病毒大致相同，沒有改變我們的免疫系統通常能識別的區域，所以研發中的疫苗對二者的效果應該不會有差別。”