流行病的性质就是无法预测。正如1918年流感流行一样，“非典”也是如此。但人们想要对一个极为重要问题有个答案：国际社会能做一些什么来预防和控制未来的流行病呢？
It is the nature of epidemics to be unpredictable. So it is with SARS，as it was with the influenza epidemic of 1918. But people want an answer to a most important question: What can the global community do to prevent and control future epidemics?
人们从以前的传染病流行和现在“非典”流行中学到了很多东西。
Much has been learned from previous infectious disease epidemics and from the current SARS epidemic.
在缺少有效疫苗和药物的情况下，通过呼吸途径传染的传染病——无论是使全球2000多万人死亡的1918年流感流行，还是在儿童中迅速传播的麻疹——必须认真对待。
In the absence of effective vaccines or drugs, infectious diseases that are spread by the respiratory route—whether the influenza epidemic of 1918 that killed more than 20 million people worldwide or measles, which spreads rapidly among children—must be taken very seriously.
“非典”流行的一个重要含义是，在全球化背景下，一个国家的卫生状况越来越多地依靠全球的专家来发现潜在的健康威胁，并有科学能力在当地应对这些威胁。
One important implication of SARS epidemic is that in a globalized context, the health security of one country increasingly depends on expertise around the world in identifying potential health threats and in having the scientific capability to address those threats locally.
在20世纪80年代，鉴别HIV为艾滋病的原因用了2年时间。在2003年，世界卫生组织创建了由10个国家13个实验室组成非同寻常的网络，在2周内发现了与SARS相关的一种病毒。
In the 1980s, it took 2 years to identify HIV as the cause of AIDS. In 2003, WHO created an extraordinary network of 13 laboratories in 10 countries, which identified a virus associated with SARS in 2 weeks.
国际社会在应对艾滋病和“非典”方式上有显著的不同。这表明，卫生机构对一种新传染病应对有多快，在决定它是否成为大流行得到控制方面是至关重要的。
There are striking differences in the way the global community reacted to AIDS and SARS. It shows how quickly health agencies respond to a new infectious disease can be crucial in determining whether it turns into a pandemic or is controlled.
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