打噴嚏時應該捂住口鼻，但不是用手

打噴嚏或咳嗽時該捂住口鼻沒錯。但有些方式更勝一籌。 ROBERTO PFEIL/ASSOCIATED PRESS

When you feel a sneeze or a cough coming on, covering your mouth prevents the spread of infectious germs. You probably knew that.

當你感覺快要打噴嚏或咳嗽的時候，要捂住嘴巴防止傳染性細菌的傳播。這一點你可能知道。

But the way you cover up also matters, and there are plenty of people who haven』t yet heard the consensus guidance of health officials: If no tissue is available, you should aim into your elbow, not your hand. Even if that means breaking a long-held habit.

但捂嘴的方式也很重要。很多人都沒有聽說過衛生官員給出的指導意見：如果沒有紙巾，應該對著臂彎打噴嚏或咳嗽，而不是手掌。即使這意味著你要打破自己長期形成的習慣。

「If somebody sneezes into their hands, that creates an opportunity for those germs to be passed on to other people, or contaminate other objects that people touch,」 said Dr. Vincent Hill, chief of the waterborne disease prevention branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

「如果往手心裡打噴嚏，就使得細菌有機會傳播給其他人，或是污染這個人碰過的其他物品，」疾病控制和預防中心(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)水傳播疾病預防小組的負責人文森特·希爾博士(Dr. Vincent Hill)說。

Germs are most commonly spread by the respiratory droplets emitted from sneezing and coughing. When they land on your hands, they』re transmitted to things like door knobs, elevator buttons and other surfaces the people around you are likely to also touch.

最常見的細菌傳播方式就是通過噴嚏和咳嗽時噴出的飛沫。飛沫落在手上，就會被傳遞到門把手、電梯按鈕等物體上，或是你身邊的人可能也會觸碰的其他表面上。

This isn』t just us nagging. Sneezing and coughing into your arm has become the standard suggestion of not just the C.D.C., but also organizations like the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Public Health Association. Even the New York City subway system occasionally runs an announcement asking riders to 「cough or sneeze into the bend of your arm or use a tissue.」

這並不是我們太煩人。向著臂彎打噴嚏和咳嗽不只成了疾病控制和預防中心的標準建議，也成了美國兒科醫生學會(American Academy of Pediatrics)和美國公共衛生協會(American Public Health Association)等組織的標準建議。就連紐約市的地鐵系統都會時常播送廣播，要求乘客「向手臂彎曲處咳嗽、打噴嚏，或使用紙巾」。

You or your co-workers might be forgiven for not knowing that, since the suggestion is relatively new. The C.D.C. guidance has become official only in the last 10 to 15 years, Dr. Hill said.

這個提議相對較新，你和同事們對此並不了解也情有可原。希爾表示，疾病控制和預防中心的指南在最近的10到15年內才成為官方指導。

Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, said he began seeing the suggestion more prominently about 10 years ago.

美國公共衛生協會執行主任喬治·本傑明(Georges Benjamin)博士表示，大約在10年前他才開始更加重視這些建議。

That means that adults may have missed the advice. Children, however, are frequently taught in school the proper way to cough or sneeze — sometimes referred to as the Dracula cough, since it makes you look like the count covering up with his cape.

這就意味著成年人可能錯過了這些建議。不過孩子們經常會在學校學習到正確的咳嗽或打噴嚏方式——它有時被稱為「德古拉咳嗽」(Dracula cough)，因為這會讓你看起來像是那位用斗篷遮住自己的伯爵。

Mary Anne Jackson, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine, said the term 「cough etiquette」 first turned up in 2000, and she traced the suggestion to sneeze into your arm to 2003, when SARS fears were widespread. It gained further prominence in 2009, when the H1N1 swine flu pandemic struck the United States.

密蘇里-堪薩斯城大學(University of Missouri-Kansas City)醫學院的兒科教授瑪麗· 安妮·傑克遜(Mary Anne Jackson)表示，「咳嗽禮儀」這個詞首次出現在2000年，她說，朝向手臂打噴嚏的建議可以追溯到「非典」(SARS)肆虐的2003年。到了2009年，H1N1豬流感疫情襲擊美國時，它進一步得到了重視。

That year, Kathleen Sebelius, then the health and human services secretary, shamed Chuck Todd, an NBC journalist, for his sneezing etiquette at a White House press briefing. (Rush Limbaugh, the conservative radio host, later dismissed her advice as coming from 「elitist snobs.」)

那年，時任衛生和公眾服務部長的凱瑟琳·西貝利厄斯(Kathleen Sebelius)還因為NBC記者查克·托德(Chuck Todd)在白宮新聞發布會上的噴嚏禮儀把他羞辱了一番。（保守派電台主持人拉什·林博[Rush Limbaugh]隨後將之斥為來自「虛榮精英派」的意見。）

To be clear, the maneuver doesn』t eliminate all risk, even if it』s the best tactic available. Studies have shown that even masks can』t prevent all droplets from becoming airborne, Dr. Jackson said.

要澄清的是，就算這個辦法是目前的最好手段，它也並不能消除所有風險。傑克遜表示，研究表明，即使是口罩也無法防止所有飛沫進入空中。

But anything to reduce the amount of flying particles helps. And health officials keep coming back to a drum that can never be beat enough: Make sure you consistently wash your hands.

但任何能減少飛沫數量的辦法都是有好處的。衛生官員反覆強調的這個觀點再怎麼重複都不為過：保證你經常洗手。

「Hand washing is one of the most important things people can do to keep healthy,」 Dr. Hill said.

「人們為了保持健康所能做的最重要的一件事就是洗手，」希爾說。

作者：DANIEL VICTOR

翻譯：Jowii

下載客戶端

喜歡這篇文章嗎？立刻分享出去讓更多人知道吧！