Study: Inequalities Make Poor More Likely to Die From COVID-19

研究称不平等导致穷人新冠肺炎死亡几率加大

By Caty Weaver
28 June 2020

Researchers from Imperial College London say the chance of dying from COVID-19 rises with increasing poverty.
伦顿帝国理工学院的研究人员表示，新冠肺炎死亡的机率随着贫困的加深而增加。

They blame inequalities in society in poor countries for the increased risk.
他们将这种风险上升归咎于贫困国家的社会不平等。

The coronavirus crisis continues to expand in many countries that are considered lower-income or lower-middle-income, such as India and Nigeria. Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center reports India, for example, has recorded over 440,000 COVID-19 cases and more than 14,000 deaths from the disease.
新冠病毒危机在很多低收入或中低收入国家继续扩大，例如印度和尼日利亚。约翰·霍普金斯大学新冠病毒资源中心报告称，以印度为例，该国已经录得44万例新冠肺炎感染病例和1.4万例新冠肺炎死亡病例。

The Imperial College researchers say "health inequities" mean that some groups are at greater risk. Health inequities are unfair or avoidable differences in health among different groups in society.
帝国理工学院的研究人员表示，健康不平等意味着某些群体的风险更大。健康不平等是指社会不同群体之间在健康方面受到的不公平或可避免的差异。

The report looks at such inequities based on three measures: the availability of hand-washing places, the ability to work from home and the ability to go to a hospital.
这份报告基于以下三个方面来评估这种不平等：可用的洗手场所、居家工作能力以及去医院就诊的能力。

Peter Winskill was the lead writer of the report and spoke to VOA over Skype earlier this month. "We estimated on average a 32 percent increase in the probability of death from COVID-19 when comparing individuals from the poorest households to those in the wealthiest households," he said.
彼得·温斯基尔是该报告的主要作者，他本月初通过Skype接受了美国之音的采访。他说：“对比最贫困家庭和最富裕家庭，我们估计新冠肺炎的平均死亡几率增加了32%。”

The main reason for this, Winskill added, is a lack of the ability to go to a hospital and intensive care centers at hospitals.
温斯基尔还说，主要原因是缺乏去医院就诊以及住进医院重症监护中心的能力。

Poorer families also often live in larger households that include several generations. This makes it harder to protect older family members through social distancing. Other indirect effects of the health crisis also are harder on poorer people, Winskill said. He noted lockdown periods during important agricultural periods of planting and harvesting.
较贫困家庭通常几代人一起生活在一个大家庭中。这使得通过社交隔离来保护年长的家庭成员变得更加困难。温斯基尔表示，这种健康危机的其它间接影响也让穷人更加艰难。他提到了在农业种植和收割重要时节的封锁期。

The researcher said, "We also know from the data that individuals in poorer households in these areas also depend more on food grown themselves, so there are serious food security issues."
这位研究人员表示：“我们还从数据中得知，这些地区贫困家庭的个人也更依赖自己种植的粮食，因此存在严重的粮食安全问题。”

In addition, COVID-19 has led to reduced health services for other diseases. Winskill said the research shows that deaths from AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria may increase over the next five years. He said there may be an increase of up to 10 percent for AIDS, 20 percent for TB and 36 percent for malaria deaths in areas with high level disease burden.
此外，新冠肺炎还导致其它疾病的医疗服务减少。温斯基尔表示，研究表明未来5年艾滋病、结核病和疟疾造成的死亡人数可能会增加。他说，在疾病负担重的地区，艾滋病死亡人数可能会增加10%，结核病死亡人数可能增加20%，疟疾死亡人数可能增加36%。

The report says existing patterns of inequality mean the poorest are less able to protect themselves from infection. The report's writers urge governments to improve the availability of hand-washing and strengthen community health services.
报告称，现有的不平等现象意味着最贫困的人无法保护自己免受感染。该报告的作者督促各国政府改善洗手的可用性，并加强社区卫生服务。

I'm Caty Weaver.
我是卡蒂·韦孚。

Words in This Story

society –n. the people of a particular country, area, time, etc., thought of especially as an organized community

income –n. money that is earned from work, investments, business, etc.

household –n. the people in a family or other group that are living together in one house

burden –n. something oppressive or worrisome

pattern –n. something that happens in a regular and repeated way

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