雙語新聞學英語：《致命病毒——流感感染2600萬美國人》
A deadly virus is spreading from state to state and has infected 26 million Americans so far. It's the flu
一種致命的病毒正在各州傳播，迄今已感染了2600萬美國人，這就是流感
There's another virus that has infected at least 26 million Americans across the country and killed at least 14,000 people this season alone. It's not a new pandemic -- it's influenza.
今年的這個季節存在著另一種病毒，已經在全國感染了至少2600萬美國人並造成至少14,000人死亡。這不是新的疾病大流行——這是流感。
The 2019-2020 flu season, which began September 29, is projected to be one of the worst in a decade, according to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. At least 250,000 people have been hospitalized with complications from the flu, and that number is predicted to climb as flu activity swirls.
據美國國家過敏和傳染病研究所預測，自9月29日開始的2019-2020年流感季節將是十年來最嚴重的流感季節之一。至少有25萬人因流感併發症住院，而且隨著流感活動的波動預計這個數字還會攀升。
Even the low-end estimate of deaths each year is startling. The Centers for Disease Control predicts at least 12,000 people will die from the flu in the US every year. In the 2017-2018 flu season, as many as 61,000 people died, and 45 million were sickened.
即使保守估計，每年的死亡數字也令人吃驚。疾病控制中心預測，美國每年將至少有12,000人死於流感。在2017-2018年流感季節，多達61,000人死亡，4,500萬人患病。
In the 2019-2020 season so far, at least 26 million people in the US have gotten the flu and at least 14,000 people have died from it, including at least 92 children. Flu activity has been widespread in nearly every region, with high levels of activity in 48 states and Puerto Rico, the CDC reported this week.
截至2019-2020流感季節，美國至少有2600萬人感染了流感，至少有14,000人死於流感，其中包括至少92名兒童。美國疾病控制和預防中心本週報告說，流感活動幾乎在每個地區都在蔓延，其中48個州和波多黎各的活動水平很高。
The flu can be fatal
流感可能致命
Dr. Nathan Chomilo, an adjunct assistant professor of pediatrics at University of Minnesota Medical School, said that the commonness of the flu often underplays its severity, but people should take it seriously.
明尼蘇達大學醫學院兒科副教授內森·喬米洛博士說，流感具有共性，其嚴重性通常被低估，但人們應該認真對待。
The flu becomes dangerous when secondary infections emerge, the result of an already weakened immune system. Bacterial and viral infections compound the flu's symptoms. People with chronic illnesses are also at a heightened risk for flu complications.
流感在繼發感染出現後會變得危險，其原因是免疫系統已經減弱。細菌和病毒感染使流感的症狀複雜化。慢性病患者患流感併發症的風險也會升高。
Those complications include pneumonia, inflammation in the heart and brain and organ failure -- which, in some cases, can be fatal.
這些併發症包括肺炎、心臟和大腦炎症以及器官衰竭，在某些情況下，可能是致命的。

The virus is always changing
病毒總是在變化
Influenza is tricky because the virus changes every year. Sometimes, the dominant strain in a flu season will be more virulent than in previous years, which can impact the number of people infected and the severity of their symptoms.
流感非常棘手，因為病毒每年都在變化。有時候，流感季節的主要菌株比往年更具毒性，這可能會影響感染人數及其症狀的嚴重程度。
Most of these changes in the virus are small and insignificant, a process called antigenic drift. That year's flu vaccine is mostly effective in protecting patients in spite of these small changes.
病毒中的大多數變化是微小而微不足道的，即稱為抗原漂移的過程。儘管會這些微小的變化，當年的流感疫苗對保護患者的作用大多都有效。
Occasionally, the flu undergoes a rare antigenic shift, which results when a completely new strain of virus emerges that human bodies haven't experienced before.
偶爾，流感會經歷罕見的抗原轉移，即在一種全新的人體從未經歷過的病毒株出現時產生。
This flu season, there's no sign of antigenic shift, the most extreme change. But it's happened before, most recently in 2009 with the H1N1 virus. It became a pandemic because people had no immunity against it, the CDC reported.
這一次流感季節中，沒有發生抗原轉移這一最極端變化的跡象。但這種情況以前發生過，最近一次是在感染了H1N1病毒的2009年。據美國疾病控制和預防中心報告，由於人們對這個病毒沒有免疫力，因此便發展成為了疫病大流行。
詞彙釋義：
infect：使…感染
pandemic：（瘟疫）大流行
influenza：流行性感冒
project：預測，預計
allergy：過敏
complication：併發症
predict：預測，預期
swirl：旋流，旋動，波動
low-end：低端
startle：使…驚嚇，使…驚恐
widespread：蔓延，流行
adjunct：兼職的
pediatrics：兒科
underplay：降低…重要性
secondary：次生的，繼發的
emerge：出現
immune：免疫的
bacterial：細菌
compound：使…複雜
symptom：綜合徵
chronic：慢性的
complication：併發症
tricky：棘手的
dominant：主導的，支配的
strain：菌株
virulent：劇毒的，致命的
previous：先前的，以往的
antigenic：抗原的
drift：漂移
vaccine：疫苗
occasionally：偶爾
undergo：經歷
難句解析：
1. The 2019-2020 flu season, which began September 29, is projected to be one of the worst in a decade, according to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
—— The 2019-2020 flu season（主語），which…（非限定性定語從句），is projected…（謂語），主語和謂語分隔，中間插入修飾成分：主語+分隔成分+謂語句式，是英語常用句式。
—— … is projected to…，動詞project表示預測的意思，常用被動態形式be projected to。
2. Occasionally, the flu undergoes a rare antigenic shift, which results when a completely new strain of virus emerges that human bodies haven't experienced before.
—— which results when a completely new strain of virus emerges that human bodies haven't experienced before，多個從句嵌套，第一個從句which results是非限定性定語從句，修飾shift，第二個從句when a completely new strain of virus emerges是前面的定語從句的狀語從句，第三個從句是分隔定語從句，修飾new strain of virus，修飾成分和被修飾成分被謂語分隔：主句+非限定性定語從句+狀語從句+分隔定語從句，修飾成分後置是英語常用的表達方式。
