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West Nile is typically transmitted to humans this way: A bird that has the virus is bitten by a mosquito. Then the mosquito, now a carrier, bites a human.
西尼罗病毒通常以这种方式传染人类：携带病毒的鸟类被蚊子叮咬。然后蚊子变成病毒携带者，接着又叮咬了一个人。
In some parts of the country, house mosquitoes feed primarily on birds. But the New York City version is a hybrid between a subterranean strain, which developed a taste for mammalian blood from sewer rats, and the more common aboveground version that prefers birds.
在美国的一些地区，家蚊主要以鸟类为食。但纽约市的蚊子是一个地下品种和更常见的地上品种的杂交，地下品种因为叮咬下水道的老鼠而开始喜欢哺乳动物的血液，而地上品种更喜欢叮咬鸟类。
This makes it a perfect "bridge vector" -- an agent that spreads disease from one species to another. Last year, Dr. Bajwa believes, a new strain of West Nile emerged that birds had not had time to build immunity to, so more birds contracted the virus.
这使其成为一种完美的"桥梁病媒"--将疾病从一个物种传播到另一个物种的媒介。巴杰瓦博士认为，去年出现了一种新的西尼罗毒株，鸟类没来得及对这种病毒建立免疫力，因此更多的鸟类感染了这种病毒。
The infected birds passed the strain to city mosquitoes, who passed it on to 46 humans, more than double the typical number. Two people died. West Nile has killed 59 people in New York City over the years.
受感染的鸟类将这种毒株传染给城市里的蚊子，蚊子又将病毒传染给46个人，是正常数量的两倍多。其中两人死亡。多年来，西尼罗病毒已在纽约市造成59人死亡。
More than 400 people have contracted West Nile neuroinvasive disease; its symptoms include brain inflammation, paralysis and permanent nerve damage. The city estimates that there have been 12,000 undiagnosed cases of West Nile fever.
400多人感染了西尼罗神经系统侵袭性疾病，其症状包括脑部炎症、瘫痪和永久性神经损伤。纽约市估计，有1.2万例未确诊西尼罗发热病例。
The mosquito campaign begins each winter in the Queens hibernaculum, a warren of nine dismal rooms beneath a 120-year-old gun battery at Fort Totten Park that disuse has transformed into a laboratory:
每年冬天，灭蚊运动都会在皇后区的冬眠室开始，冬眠室是九个狭窄阴暗的房间，位于托滕堡公园内的一个炮台，这座炮台有120年的历史，因荒废已久而变成了蚊子实验室。
Each room has different light, temperature and humidity conditions, making the fortress an ideal place to observe and model winter survivorship rates and allowing the city to get a jump on forecasting the coming season.
每个房间有不同的光线、温度和湿度条件，这让这个堡垒成为对蚊子的冬季存活率进行观察和建模的理想场所，也让纽约能抢先预测接下来的季节的情况。
Some hibernating mosquitoes turn out to have West Nile hibernating inside them. The battle reaches its fiercest stage in late August, when the infection rate in mosquitoes peaks and the most human cases develop.
一些正在冬眠的蚊子体内也有正在冬眠的西尼罗病毒。灭蚊战斗在8月下旬达到最激烈的阶段，此时蚊子的感染率达到顶峰，也出现了最多的人类病例。
Trucks sweep through residential neighborhoods spraying pesticide. There has never been a year with fewer than three human cases. If the city lets up the pressure, Dr. Bajwa said, "the number of cases is going to go very high."
喷洒杀虫剂的卡车横扫过居民区。从来没有哪一年人类病例少于三例。"如果放松警惕，"巴杰瓦博士说，"病例的数量将会飙升。"
In late spring, the city starts bombing breeding grounds with larvicide -- ground-up corncobs saturated with naturally occurring soil bacteria that are deadly to baby mosquitoes but generally harmless to other life.
在春末，纽约开始用幼虫杀蚊剂轰炸滋生蚊子的地区，这种杀虫剂就是把碾碎的玉米棒浸泡在自然产生的土壤细菌中，这些细菌对小蚊子是致命的，但通常对其他生物无害。
Dr. Bajwa oversaw the operation at Freshkills Park on Staten Island, a savannah of gentle hills laid atop what was once the world's largest landfill.
巴杰瓦博士在斯塔滕岛的弗莱什河公园监督了这一行动，这个公园坐落在曾经世界上最大的垃圾填埋场之上，如今这里是一片起伏和缓的草坪丘陵。
It was June 8. A helicopter roared in, refilled with pesticide, took off again. The pilot, John Sondgeroth, a Vietnam combat vet, flew low over Fresh Kills creek, strafing the waterline, targeting the roots of marsh grass where another species that carries West Nile shelters and feeds.
那天是6月8号，一架直升机呼啸而来，装满杀虫剂，然后再次起飞。飞行员是越战退伍军人约翰·桑德格罗思，他在弗莱什河上方低空飞过，扫射河流湿地，对准沼泽中野草的根部，另一种携带西尼罗病毒的物种就在这些草丛中藏身和进食。
Mr. Sondgeroth told me: "Just like mowing the lawn. You go back and forth, back and forth, back and forth."
桑德格罗思告诉我："就像割草坪一样，飞过去再飞回来，过去再回来，过去再回来。"
