When most people think about the beginnings of AIDS, they're gonna think back to the 1980s. And certainly, this was the decade in which we discovered AIDS and the virus that causes it, HIV. But in fact this virus crossed over into humans many decades before, from chimpanzees, where the virus originated, into humans who hunt these apes.
大部分人一想到愛滋的起源 就想到 1980 年代。 的確,當時我們發現了愛滋病 還有它的病原,HIV 不過,這個病毒實際上卻在幾十年前就已經滲入人類社會 從病毒的源頭宿主黑猩猩,感染獵殺猩猩的人類們
This photo was taken before the Great Depression in Brazzaville, Congo. At this time, there were thousands of individuals, we think, that were infected with HIV.
這張照片是在經濟大蕭條之前拍攝的 地點在剛果首都布拉薩 我們認為,當時已有上千個當地居民 感染了HIV
So I have a couple of really important questions for you. If this virus was in thousands of individuals at this point, why was it the case that it took us until 1984 to be able to discover this virus? OK now, more importantly, had we been there in the '40s and '50s, '60s, had we seen this disease, had we understood exactly what was going on with it, how might that have changed and completely transformed the nature of the way this pandemic moved?
那麼讓我問各位幾個很重要的問題 如果當時已有上千名 居民感染了病毒 為什麼我們一直要到 1984 年 才發現這個病毒? 更重要的問題是 我們在 40′ 50′ 和60年代是否去過那裡 是否已經看過這個疾病,是否完全了解 愛滋病的機制?如果是的話,是否會完全改變 且轉化這個傳染病的自然感染途徑?
In fact, this is not unique to HIV. The vast majority of viruses come from animals. And you can kind of think of this as a pyramid of this bubbling up of viruses from animals into human populations. But only at the very top of this pyramid do these things become completely human. Nevertheless, we spend the vast majority of our energy focused on this level of the pyramid, trying to tackle things that are already completely adapted to human beings, that are going to be very very difficult to address -- as we've seen in the case of HIV.
其實,不只是 HIV ,絕大多數的 病毒都是從動物身上發現的 大家應該可以想像層出不窮的病毒,就像這個金字塔 從動物宿主傳染到人類族群 但是唯有金字塔頂端的病毒才會完全轉化成人類病毒 然而,我們卻將絕大部份的精力 專注在金字塔頂層 想辦法對付這些已經完全適應人類 而且非常難處理的病毒 HIV 就是很好的例證
So during the last 15 years, I've been working to actually study the earlier interface here -- what I've labeled "viral chatter," which was a term coined by my mentor Don Burke. This is the idea that we can study the sort of pinging of these viruses into human populations, the movement of these agents over into humans; and by capturing this moment, we might be able to move to a situation where we can catch them early.
因此,過去 15 年來 我都在研究底層的病毒 這裡標出的「viral chatter」是個新創的名詞 由我的教授 Don Burke 所創 這個觀念就是,我們可以研究 追溯病毒入侵人類族群的足跡、 病毒感染蔓延到人類的途徑 藉著捕捉這些蛛絲馬跡 我們或許可以早一步發現它們
OK, so this is a picture, and I'm going to show you some pictures now from the field. This is a picture of a central African hunter. It's actually a fairly common picture. One of the things I want you to note from it is blood -- that you see a tremendous amount of blood contact. This was absolutely key for us. This is a very intimate form of connection. So if we're going to study viral chatter, we need to get to these populations who have intensive contact with wild animals.
好的,這是其中一張照片,我會給大家看看 一些實地勘查的照片 照片中的人是一名中非獵人 這其實是一張很普通的照片 我希望大家注意看照片中 動物的血,你可以看到獵人與獵物有大量的血液接觸 這對我們非常重要。這是一種 非常直接的接觸 因此,要研究病毒的蛛絲馬跡,我們必須 深入那些跟野生動物有密集接觸的居民
And so we've been studying people like this individual. We collect blood from them, other specimens. We look at the diseases, which are in the animals as well as the humans. And ideally, this is going to allow us to catch these things early on, as they're moving over into human populations. And the basic objective of this work is not to just go out once and look at these individuals, but to establish thousands of individuals in these populations that we would monitor continuously on a regular basis. When they were sick, we would collect specimens from them.
因此,我們的研究樣本都是像照片中的獵人 收集他們的血液還有其他檢體 在裡面找同時出現在動物跟人體中的疾病 希望這樣做可以讓我們抓到病毒 在它們在人類族群中蔓延前及早發現 研究工作的基本目標不只是 去勘查一次,拜訪這些居民 而是在這些人類族群中, 對上千個當地居民 建立持續且規律的監控 當他們生病了,我們就會收集檢體
We would actually enlist them -- which we've done now -- to collect specimens from animals. We give them these little pieces of filter paper. When they sample from animals, they collect the blood on the filter paper and this allows us to identify yet-unknown viruses from exactly the right animals -- the ones that are actually being hunted.
我們甚至招募他們 收集動物的檢體,現在已經這樣做了 我們發給他們這種小張的濾紙 當他們從動物身上取下樣本時 會把動物血液收集在濾紙上 如此可以幫助我們在正確的動物樣本 也就是獵物上鑑定出一些目前未知的病毒
(Video) Narrator: Deep in a remote region of Cameroon, two hunters stalk their prey. Their names are Patrice and Patee. They're searching for bush meat; forest animals they can kill to feed their families. Patrice and Patee set out most days to go out hunting in the forest around their homes. They have a series of traps, of snares that they've set up to catch wild pigs, snakes, monkeys, rodents -- anything they can, really. Patrice and Patee have been out for hours but found nothing. The animals are simply gone.
影片解說 : 在喀麥隆偏遠地帶的深處 兩個獵人正在追蹤他們的獵物 他們是派崔斯和帕帝 他們正在找尋野生獸肉 也就是可以殺來餵飽家人的叢林野生動物 派崔斯和帕帝大部分的時間都 在家附近的叢林中打獵 他們設下一連串的陷阱及機關 為的是想抓些野豬、蛇、猴子 老鼠,任何能抓到的都好 派崔斯和帕帝已經在外好幾個小時卻一無所獲 動物們好像都不見了
We stop for a drink of water. Then there is a rustle in the brush. A group of hunters approach, their packs loaded with wild game. There's at least three viruses that you know about, which are in this particular monkey.
我們停下來喝口水 然後樹叢裡傳出一陣窸窣聲 一群獵人向我們走來 他們背著豐碩的成果 在這種猴子身上至少可以找到 三種已知的病毒
Nathan Wolfe: This species, yeah. And there's many many more pathogens that are present in these animals. These individuals are at specific risk, particularly if there's blood contact, they're at risk for transmission and possibly infection with novel viruses.
就在這一種猴子身上,沒錯,而且還有非常多病原體 都存在這些動物體內 這些人感染的風險特別高 特別是有血液接觸的人,很有可能被傳染 且可能感染到一些新病毒
Narrator: As the hunters display their kills, something surprising happens. They show us filter paper they've used to collect the animals' blood. The blood will be tested for zoonotic viruses, part of a program Dr. Wolfe has spent years setting up.
當獵人們展示他們的成果,令我們驚訝的是 他們拿出收集了動物血液的濾紙 這些血液會用來檢測寄生的病毒 這是渥夫博士花了好幾年準備的研究計畫
NW: So this is from this animal right here, Greater Spot-Nosed Guenon. Every person who has one of those filter papers has at least, at a minimum, been through our basic health education about the risks associated with these activities, which presumably, from our perspective, gives them the ability to decrease their own risk, and then obviously the risk to their families, the village, the country, and the world.
所以這張是從這隻動物身上採集的 大白鼻長尾猴 每個身上帶著這些濾紙的人至少、 最少都受過我們基本的健康教育 教導他們這些活動的相關風險 我們認為應該能 為他們降低感染的風險 當然還能降低家人感染的風險 降低傳染村莊、國家、世界的風險
NW: OK, before I continue, I think it's important to take just a moment to talk about bush meat. Bush meat is the hunting of wild game. OK? And you can consider all sorts of different bush meat. I'm going to be talking about this. When your children and grandchildren sort of pose questions to you about this period of time, one of the things they're gonna ask you, is how it was they we allowed some of our closest living relatives, some of the most valuable and endangered species on our planet, to go extinct because we weren't able to address some of the issues of poverty in these parts of the world.
好的,在我繼續進行前,我想很重要的是花點時間 討論野生獸肉,也就是野味 好嗎?大家可以把各種野味都列入考慮 我想討論這個議題 當你的子孫 問起這段時期 他們會問你的一個問題就是 我們怎麼能讓一些我們的近親物種 那些地球上最珍貴又稀有的生物滅絕 難道是因為 我們沒有能力處理在世界某些地方 發生的貧困問題
But in fact that's not the only question they're going to ask you about this. They're also going to ask you the question that when we knew that this was the way that HIV entered into the human population, and that other diseases had the potential to enter like this, why did we let these behaviors continue? Why did we not find some other solution to this? They're going to say, in regions of profound instability throughout the world, where you have intense poverty, where populations are growing and you don't have sustainable resources like this, this is going to lead to food insecurity.
事實上他們會問的不僅如此 他們也會問你 我們既然知道這是 HIV 侵入 人類族群的方式 而其他疾病也可能循同樣方式入侵 為什麼還繼續放任這種行為 ? 為什麼不找其他解決方法 ? 他們會說,在世界某些 極度動盪不安的地區 有嚴重的貧困問題且人口繼續增加 如果沒有像打獵這樣穩定的生計來源 就沒有穩定的食物來源
But they're also going to ask you probably a different question. It's one that I think we all need to ask ourselves, which is, why we thought the responsibility rested with this individual here. Now this is the individual -- you can see just right up over his right shoulder -- this is the individual that hunted the monkey from the last picture that I showed you. OK, take a look at his shirt. You know, take a look at his face. Bush meat is one of the central crises, which is occurring in our population right now, in humanity, on this planet. But it can't be the fault of somebody like this. OK? And solving it cannot be his responsibility alone. There's no easy solutions, but what I'm saying to you is that we neglect this problem at our own peril.
不過,他們也可能會問不同的問題 這也是我們需要捫心自問的 為什麼我們認為是這個人該負起責任 現在你看到的這個人,你可以注意看他右肩膀上 就是這個人獵到 上一張照片中的猴子 現在看看他的上衣 再看看他的臉 捕捉野味目前是 地球上的人類 目前在人道上最關鍵的危機 但這不是一個人需要承擔的錯誤 是吧 ?解決這個問題也不是他一個人的責任 這沒有簡單的解決辦法 不過,我想和大家說,要是我們輕忽這個問題 後果自負
So, in 1998, along with my mentors Don Burke and Colonel Mpoudi-Ngole, we went to actually start this work in Central Africa, to work with hunters in this part of the world. And my job -- at that time I was a post-doctoral fellow, and I was really tasked with setting this up. So I said to myself, "OK, great -- we're gonna collect all kinds of specimens. We're gonna go to all these different locations. It's going to be wonderful." You know, I looked at the map; I picked out 17 sites; I figured, no problem. (Laughter)
所以在 1998 年我跟著我的教授 Don Burke 和 Colonel Mpoudi-Ngole 開始著手工作 走入中非,與當地的獵人們 一起合作 我的任務是...當時我還是個博士後研究員, 為了準備工作忙的不可開交 所以我跟自己說 : 好,太棒了 我們要收集各種檢體,我們要到各個 不同的地區,一定很好玩 就這樣,我看著地圖,挑出 17 個地點 我想一定沒問題 (笑聲)
Needless to say, I was drastically wrong. This is challenging work to do. Fortunately, I had and continue to have an absolutely wonderful team of colleagues and collaborators in my own team, and that's the only way that this work can really occur. We have a whole range of challenges about this work.
不用說,我真是大錯特錯 這是一項極具挑戰的工作 很幸運地,在我的工作團隊中, 我一直都能與一群很棒的同事及中間人合作 這也是研究計畫可以順利誕生的原因 在過程中我們遇到各種不同的挑戰
One of them is just obtaining trust from individuals that we work with in the field. The person you see on the right hand side is Paul DeLong-Minutu. He's one of the best communicators that I've really ever dealt with. When I arrived I didn't speak a word of French, and I still seemed to understand what it was he was saying. Paul worked for years on the Cameroonian national radio and television, and he spoke about health issues. He was a health correspondent. So we figured we'd hire this person -- when we got there he could be a great communicator. When we would get to these rural villages, though, what we found out is that no one had television, so they wouldn't recognize his face. But -- when he began to speak they would actually recognize his voice from the radio. And this was somebody who had incredible potential to spread aspects of our message, whether it be with regards to wildlife conservation or health prevention.
其中之一就是得到 與我們合作的居民的信任 大家看到右手邊的人是 Paul DeLong-Minutu 他是我遇過最厲害的交涉者之一 我剛到當地時一個法文單字都不會 但是我似乎可以理解他在說什麼 Paul 有好幾年的工作經驗 在喀麥隆的國家廣播及電視 他談論健康議題,擔任衛生醫療記者 所以我們想如果雇用這個人,當我們到達當地 他會個很好的交涉人 不過到了鄉下村子裡,我們才發現 沒有人有電視 所以居民根本認不出他 但是他一說話 居民卻從廣播中認出他的聲音 因此這個人非常適合 替我們散佈所要傳達的觀念 不管是有關野生動物保育 或是疾病預防方面
Often we run into obstacles. This is us coming back from one of these very rural sites, with specimens from 200 individuals that we needed to get back to the lab within 48 hours. I like to show this shot -- this is Ubald Tamoufe, who's the lead investigator in our Cameroon site. Ubald laughs at me when I show this photo because of course you can't see his face. But the reason I like to show the shot is because you can see that he's about to solve this problem. (Laughter) Which -- which he did, which he did. Just a few quick before and after shots. This was our laboratory before. This is what it looks like now. Early on, in order to ship our specimens, we had to have dry ice. To get dry ice we had to go to the breweries -- beg, borrow, steal to get these folks to give it to us. Now we have our own liquid nitrogen. I like to call our laboratory the coldest place in Central Africa -- it might be. And here's a shot of me, this is the before shot of me. (Laughter) No comment.
我們常遇到困難。這時我們正從 非常偏僻的地方要趕著回去 帶著 200 位居民的檢體 要在 48 小時之內回到實驗室 我想讓大家看這張照片 他是 Ubald Tamoufe,是喀麥隆地區的 領隊研究員 我讓 Ubald 看這張照片時他還取笑我 當然你們看不到他的臉 我展示這張照片的原因是 大家可以看到他正要解決我們的問題 (笑聲) 而且還成功了。 快速的看幾張前後期的照片 這是我們實驗室之前的樣子 這是它現在的樣子 早期,為了要運送檢體 必須要用到乾冰,要拿到乾冰我們必須要 到釀酒廠,向他們討、去借、或偷才有 現在我們有自己的液態氮 我喜歡叫我們實驗室「中非最冷的地方」,應該算名符其實 這張是我的照片,研究前期的照片 (笑聲) 不予置評
So what happened? So during the 10 years that we've been doing this work, we actually surprised ourselves. We made a number of discoveries. And what we've found is that if you look in the right place, you can actually monitor the flow of these viruses into human populations. That gave us a tremendous amount of hope. What we've found is a whole range of new viruses in these individuals, including new viruses in the same group as HIV -- so, brand new retroviruses. And let's face it, any new retrovirus in the human population -- it's something we should be aware of. It's something we should be following. It's not something that we should be surprised by.
中間發生了什麼事?在我們進行研究的 10 年中 連我們自己都感到驚訝 我們有好幾項新發現 我們發現,只要研究切入點正確 其實可以觀察到 這些病毒滲透到人類族群的趨勢 這帶給我們很大的希望 我們從居民身上找到各種不同的新病毒 包過一些和 HIV 同類的新病毒 全新的反轉錄病毒 讓我們面對現實,無論是何種反轉錄病毒 進入人類族群,就是我們應該要注意 要追蹤的大事。 我們不應該因此措手不及。
Needless to say in the past these viruses entering into these rural communities might very well have gone extinct. That's no longer the case. Logging roads provide access to urban areas. And critically, what happens in central Africa doesn't stay in Central Africa. So, once we discovered that it was really possible that we could actually do this monitoring, we decided to move this from research, to really attempt to phase up to a global monitoring effort. Through generous support and partnership scientifically with Google.org and the Skoll Foundation, we were able to start the Global Viral Forecasting Initiative and begin work in four different sites in Africa and Asia. Needless to say, different populations from different parts of the world have different sorts of contact. So it's not just hunters in Central Africa. It's also working in live animal markets -- these wet markets -- which is exactly the place where SARS emerged in Asia. But really, this is just the beginning from our perspective.
不需多說,以前 這些病毒要是進入農村社區 就幾乎等於滅絕。 現在不可同日而語,木棧道提供進入都市的管道 嚴格來說,在中非爆發的問題 最後也會影響全世界 所以一發現 加以監控的可行性很高 我們決定將研究進一步推到 真正嘗試逐步進行全球監控的工作 憑藉著慷慨的支持和 與 Google.org 及史科爾基金會在科學上的合作 我們創立了全球病毒預報先遣行動 開始在非洲和亞洲 四個不同地方進行 不用說,世界不同地區的不同族群 接觸病毒的方式不同 所以不只是中非的獵人 活體動物市集中也有蔓延的危險 這些潮溼的市場,也正是 SARS 在亞洲爆發的地方 不過這對我們來說其實只是開端
Our objective right now, in addition to deploying to these sites and getting everything moving, is to identify new partners because we feel like this effort needs to be extended to probably 20 or more sites throughout the world -- to viral hotspots -- because really the idea here is to cast an incredibly wide net so that we can catch these things, ideally, before they make it to blood banks, sexual networks, airplanes. And that's really our objective. There was a time not very long ago when the discovery of unknown organisms was something that held incredible awe for us. It had potential to really change the way that we saw ourselves, and thought about ourselves.
我們現在的目標, 除了在這些地方部署,讓一切上軌道 還有找到新的夥伴 因為我們覺得這樣的活動需要多方同時進行 大約需到達 20 個以上遍佈世界各地、病毒猖獗的地方 因為我們提出的想法是撒下天羅地網 希望能捕捉到病毒 防堵它們滲入血庫 入侵性行為網絡、航空。這就是我們的目標 不久之前 我們還對發現未知的有機生物 抱持著非常敬畏的態度 這很有可能改變我們看待自己的方式 和對自己的想法
Many people, I think, on our planet right now despair, and they think we've reached a point where we've discovered most of the things. I'm going tell you right now: please don't despair. If an intelligent extra-terrestrial was taxed with writing the encyclopedia of life on our planet, 27 out of 30 of these volumes would be devoted to bacteria and virus, with just a few of the volumes left for plants, fungus and animals, humans being a footnote; interesting footnote but a footnote nonetheless. This is honestly the most exciting period ever for the study of unknown life forms on our planet. The dominant things that exist here we know almost nothing about. And yet finally, we have the tools, which will allow us to actually explore that world and understand them.
我認為現在地球上很多人 感到絕望,他們認為 我們已經發現絕大多數事物 我在這裡告訴大家,請不要覺得絕望 如果具高等智慧的外星人 要編一部地球生命的百科全書 30 本裡有 27 本 將會是有關細菌和病毒 最後剩下的幾本 才是寫植物、真菌和動物的 人類只算得上是小小的註解 一個內容有趣但簡短的註解 現在真的是研究地球上未知生命型態 最令人興奮的一段時期 重點是 我們幾乎一無所知 不過,我們終於有了工具,可供探索那個世界 進而增進了解
Thank you very much. (Applause)
非常感謝 (掌聲)