5.波旁病毒
A Kansas farmer recently died from a mysterious tick-borne viral infection. The man's symptoms began with nausea, weakness, and diarrhea. Lung and kidney failure followed. Doctors treated him with antibiotics, the standard course of action for tick-borne illness. Nothing worked. After 10 days in the hospital, he was dead.
最近，一个堪萨斯农民在神秘的蜱媒病毒感染中去世。他的症状始于恶心、虚弱和腹泻。然后是肺和肾衰竭。医生给他用了抗生素，也就是蜱媒疾病的常规疗法。10天后，他还是在医院去世了。
With only one confirmed case, doctors are clueless about the disease's full spectrum. It might be a killer. Or this might be a rare case in which a mild disease became deadly. The best defense is to avoid tick contact by wearing long pants, using insect repellent, and performing frequent tick-checks.
只凭一个确诊病例，医生无从得知该病的全谱。它可能是种不治之症，也可能是一个小病致命的罕见病例。最好的预防措施是避免接触蜱虫：穿长裤，使用驱虫剂，并经常检查是否有蜱虫叮咬。
4.西伯利亚阔口罐病毒
A French research team recently unearthed a 30,000-year-old giant virus from the Siberian permafrost—and it's still infectious. The virus was discovered in a soil sample from 98 feet beneath the ground. It is wider than other giant viruses, and large enough to be seen through a standard microscope.
2014年，一个法国研究小组在西伯利亚永久冻土中，发现了一个3万年前的巨型病毒，而且它仍然具有传染性。该病毒被发现于地下98英尺的土壤样品中。它比其他巨型病毒更宽，并且大到标准显微镜就能看到。
The team fished for viruses using amoebas, their target hosts, as bait. The amoeba starting dying, and researchers discovered they were laden with these ancient giants. Unlike most viruses, which attack the nucleus, sibericum sets up replication factories in the host's cytoplasm. Although sibericum only targeted amoeba, another giant virus dubbed Marseillesvirus recent infected an 11-year-old boy in France. It is possible that dangerous viruses also lurk deep underground. More than any other factor, human activities like drilling and mining are likely to unearth these slumbering monsters.
该团队用宿主变形虫作为诱饵捕捉病毒。变形虫开始死亡，而研究人员发现，它们体内满是这些古老的巨型病毒。与大多数攻击细胞核的病毒不同，西伯利亚病毒在宿主的细胞质中复制。西伯利亚病毒只入侵变形虫，但另一种被称为马赛病毒的巨型病毒，最近在法国感染了一个11岁的男孩。地下深处可能还潜伏着危险的病毒。比任何其他因素，人类活动——如钻井和采矿——更有可能释放这些沉睡的怪物。
3.深海病毒
Researchers now believe there is more biomass inside earth's dark, nutrient-deprived depths than anywhere else. In the ocean depths off California, they recently made a remarkable discovery into that mysterious biomass: a virus that infects methane-eating archaea, small bacteria-like organisms, on the ocean floor. Samples were collected from a deep methane seep by pushing tubes into the ocean sediment. Back in the lab, the sediments were fed methane, which triggered archaea growth—along with their viral parasites.
研究人员现在认为，黑暗而贫瘠的地球深处，比其他任何地方都富有生物质。在加利福尼亚的海洋深处，他们对这种神秘的生物质有了惊人的发现：一种病毒。它在海底感染以甲烷为食的古细菌，这种古细菌是一种小型的细菌样生物。研究人员将管推入海洋沉积物收集深层甲烷冷泉样品。回到实验室后，向沉积物输入甲烷，激活了古生菌的生长，以及寄生它们的病毒。
The virus selectively targets one of its own genes for mutation. So do the archaea. The target of the mutations are the tips of the virus, which come into contact with their host. It is a countermeasure against tarchaea's own selective mutation defenses. This has led to a deep-sea arms race. Partial genetic matches between the California deep-sea viruses and ones discovered around Norway suggest global distribution.
病毒选择自身基因中的一个用于突变。古细菌也是如此。突变的目标在病毒的末端，使其与宿主接触。这是针对古细菌选择性突变防御的对策，导致了深海军备竞赛。加利福尼亚和挪威深海病毒的部分遗传互相匹配，说明了这种病毒的全球分布。
2.神秘瘫痪
In 2015, a wave of American children suffered from acute flaccid paralysis. The outbreak coincided with the flaring up of another respiratory disease caused by the enterovirus EV-D68, a relative of poliovirus. Many suspected a correlation. However, EV-D68 is not known for causing systemic problems like paralysis, and it was only found in 20 percent of the cases. A case from Virginia led some to believe that the cause might be from another virus called C105.
2015年，很多美国儿童患上了急性软瘫。瘫痪与另一种由肠病毒EV-D68（脊髓灰质炎病毒的近亲）引起的呼吸道疾病同时爆发，使很多人怀疑它们有相关性。然而没有证据显示，EV-D68会导致瘫痪之类的神经问题，而且仅在20％的病例中发现了这种病毒。一个弗吉尼亚的病例让一些人相信，原因可能是一种名为C105的病毒。
Before the Virginia case, C105 had only been identified in Peru and the Republic of Congo. The disease is associated with respiratory problems. However, a few African cases were linked with paralysis. The C105 theory could explain why 80 percent of the patients tested negative for EV-D68. Yet none of the patients were found to have enterovirus in their spinal fluid, which would account for the neurological symptoms. The cause of the outbreak remains a mystery.
在弗吉尼亚病例之前，C105只在秘鲁和刚果共和国被发现，会导致呼吸道疾病。不过，少数非洲病例也与瘫痪有关。 C105理论可以解释，为什么80％的患者是EV-D68阴性。然而，没有患者的脊髓液中发现了肠病毒，无法解释神经症状。爆发的原因仍然是一个谜。
1.Undiagnosed Hemorrhagic Fever Syndrome
1.未确诊的出血热综合症
South Sudan is plagued by violence, hunger, and now a mysterious viral outbreak. So far, 10 people have died from Ebola-like symptoms of bleeding, fever, and vomiting. However, Ebola is not the culprit. Doctors have dubbed the disease "undiagnosed hemorrhagic fever syndrome." Last year, Darfur in Sudan had 129 fatalities from an unidentified illness. It is not yet known whether they are the same disease.
南苏丹饱受暴力和饥饿困扰，现在还要加上一种神秘病毒的爆发。到目前为止，有10人死于类似埃博拉感染的出血、发热和呕吐。然而，埃博拉不是罪魁祸首。医生们称之为“未诊断的出血热综合征”。去年，苏丹达尔富尔有129人死于不明原因的疾病。目前还不知道是否是同一种疾病。
Blood samples for infected patients have revealed a host of viruses: onyong-nyong, chikungunya, and dengue fever. However, none explain the 10 deaths, and none contained Ebola. Most believe this is a virus spread by ticks or mosquitoes, but some are not ruling out the possibility of a bacteria or parasitic origin. So far, there is no evidence of person-to-person transmission, and 75 percent of the victims are under 20. Violent civil war and underdevelopment in the region prevent effective research into the disease's origins.
感染者的血样中含有大量病毒：阿尼昂尼昂、基孔肯雅和登革热。然而，它们都不能解释这10人的死因，埃博拉病毒也不能。大多数人认为，这是一种由蜱或蚊子传播的病毒，但一些人也不排除来源于细菌或寄生虫的可能性。到目前为止，没有证据显示该病会在人与人之间传播，而75％的受害者不到20岁。该地区的暴力内战和不发达妨碍了对病源的有效研究。
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