📰 Indians turn to black market, unproven drugs as virus surges

🀄 隨著病毒激增，印度人轉向黑市，買賣未經認證的藥品

NEW DELHI (AP) — Ashish Poddar kept an ice pack on hand as he waited outside a New Delhi hospital for a black market dealer to deliver two drugs for his father, who was gasping for breath inside with COVID-19.

📌 新德里(美聯社)-艾希什·波達手持冰袋，當時他在新德里醫院外面等著黑市交易商為他父親送去兩種藥物，父親正因COVID-19喘氣著。

But the drugs never arrived, the ice that was intended to keep the medicines cool melted and his father died hours later.

📌 但是藥物從來沒有送達過，原本用來使藥物保持低溫的冰融化了，他的父親幾小時後也去世了。

As India faces a devastating surge of new coronavirus infections overwhelming its health care system, people are taking desperate measures to try to keep loved ones alive. In some cases they are turning to unproven medical treatments, in others to the black market for life-saving medications that are in short supply.

📌 由於印度面臨著毀滅性的新型冠狀病毒感染，其醫療體係不堪嚴峻負荷，人們無所不用其極，試圖讓親人存活。在某些情況下，他們轉向未經認證的醫學治療，而在另一些情況下，則轉向了黑市購買救命藥物。

Poddar had been told by the private hospital treating his father, Raj Kumar Poddar, that remdesivir, an antiviral, and tocilizumab, a drug that blunts human immune responses, were needed to keep the 68-year-old man alive.

📌 這家私立醫院告訴波達(Poddar)說，抑制人類免疫反應的藥物，才能使他68歲的父親存活。

Like most hospitals and pharmacies in the Indian capital, stocks had run out. Desperate, Poddar turned to a dealer who promised the medicines after taking an advance of almost $1,000.

📌 像印度首都的大多數醫院和藥房一樣，庫存已經耗盡。絕望的是，Poddar求助於一位經銷商，他預付了將近1,000美元後，藥商才答應給他這些藥品。

“It’s nearby” and “coming” read some of the texts that Ashish received as he waited.

📌 “就在附近”和“快來了”，這是Ashish在等待時收到的文字。

“I wish he had at least told me that he isn’t going to come. I could have searched elsewhere,” the grieving son said.

📌 悲傷的兒子泣訴 “我真希望他至少告訴我他不會來，我本可以在其他地方尋找的”。

India set another global record in new virus cases Thursday with more than 379,000 new infections, putting even more pressure on the country’s overwhelmed hospitals. The country of nearly 1.4 billion people has now recorded over 18 million cases, behind only the U.S., and over 200,000 deaths — though the true number is believed to be higher.

📌 印度週四在新病毒病例方面再創全球紀錄，新感染病例超過379,000，這給該國不堪重負的醫院帶來了更大壓力。目前，這個擁有將近14億人口的國家記錄了超過1800萬例病例，僅次於美國，並且有20萬多人死亡，儘管據信真實的數字更高。

Death is so omnipresent that burial grounds are running out of space in many cities and glowing funeral pyres blaze through the night.

📌 死亡無處不在，以致許多城市的墓地空間不足，夜幕降臨時，熾熱的葬禮堆​​被燒得沸沸揚揚。

The few medicines known to help treat COVID-19, such as remdesivir and steroids in hospitalized patients, are scarce. The most basic treatment —oxygen therapy — is also in short supply, leading to unnecessary deaths. Even hospital beds are scarce. There were just 14 free intensive care beds available in New Delhi, a city of 29 million people, on Thursday morning.

📌 很少有已知的可幫助治療COVID-19的藥物，例如住院患者中的瑞德昔韋和類固醇。最基本的治療方法-氧氣療法-也供不應求，導致不必要的死亡。甚至醫院的病床也很匱乏。週四上午，在新德里這個擁有2900萬人的城市中，只有14張免費的重症監護病床可用。

India’s latest treatment guidelines mirror those of the World Health Organization and the United States with a key exception: India allows mildly ill patients to be given hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin, drugs used for certain tropical diseases.

📌 印度的最新治療指引與世界衛生組織和美國的指引南很相似，其中有一個關鍵的例外：印度允許為輕症患者提供羥氯喹或伊維菌素，這些藥物用於某些熱帶疾病。

There is little evidence they work against COVID-19, and the WHO strongly recommends against hydroxychloroquine’s use for COVID-19 of any severity and against using ivermectin except in studies.

📌 幾乎沒有證據表示它們可以對抗COVID-19，並且WHO強烈建議在研究中，禁止使用羥氯喹用於任何嚴重程度的COVID-19，並反對使用伊維菌素。

While India is a leading producer of medicine globally, its regulation of drugs was poor even before the pandemic. And mounting despair is driving people to try anything.

📌 儘管印度是全球領先的藥品生產國，但即使在大流行之前，印度對藥品的監管仍然很差。加劇的絕望驅使人們做任何嘗試。

資料來源: https://reurl.cc/E2dmr1