Google Translate - One of the tools of the trade
UPDATED (See Xinhua News Update at bottom)
# 7137
About two hours ago Crof over at Crofsblog picked up a (machine translated) syntax-challenged press statement (see H7N9: Another case in Beijing?) on Beijing’s Health Department website that appeared to say another child – a four year-old neighbor of the case reported yesterday – had tested positive for the H7N9 Virus.
While a murky translation, it also intimated that the child was asymptomatic.
The past couple of hours has seen a concerted effort by the newshounds on FluTrackers, and elsewhere, to pin down this story. And while not completely clear as to the details, there are now several corroborating reports.
The FluTrackers thread China - Child, 4, 2nd H7N9 case in Beijing confirmed - asymptomatic now has several translated reports (h/t Diane Morin, Giuseppe Michieli, Sharon Sanders), including:
H7N9, Beijing: An asymptomatic boy infected with birdflu virus
Beijing case of human infection with H7N9 avian influenza virus carriers
2013 04 15, 2011 03:36 Source: Xinhua News Agency
Xinhua Viewpoint: Beijing case of human infection of H7N9 avian influenza virus carriers] reporters from the Beijing Municipal Health Bureau was informed that at 3:00 on the 15th, father in Beijing first case of human infection of H7N9 avian influenza confirmed cases of trafficking in the poultry population monitoring, found a 4-year-old boy with H7N9 avian influenza virus nucleic acid positive.
Beijing clinical expert group overall judgment that the boy's human infection of H7N9 avian influenza virus carriers without clinical symptoms.
The translated term `father’ often refers to immediate surroundings or neighborhood, not a biological parent.
Obviously, we are all looking forward to an English-language press statement that will help clear up exactly what the status of this 4-year-old is, and how this case was identified.
But this story offers a good opportunity to try to explain what the Newshounds of Flublogia do, and how they do it.
It’s an exacting, sometimes mind-numbing job, that dozens of volunteers on the flu forums (I rely primarily on those on FluTrackers & The Flu Wiki) – and from countries all around the world - have been doing without compensation for years.
And I would be quick to say they do it on slow news days (which are by far, the majority) with just as much devotion and gusto as we are seeing during this H7N9 crisis.
The must first figure out what terms in other languages to search on, and while H7N9 these past couple of weeks has been the most common search term, it isn’t always that easy.
As you can see, just finding the articles that need to be translated is a major undertaking.
They then use a variety of translation programs to turn Bahasan, or Arabic, or Chinese into some semblance of English. Often, they will use more than one translation system, to try to get the most readable result.
Sometimes they are even forced to do a word-by-word translation using a foreign language dictionary. The result isn’t always the King’s English, but it is usually decipherable, and frequently of value.
Even then, it takes experience and knowledge of idioms and local customs to properly interpret these stories - skills that many of these newshounds have developed over these many months (and sometimes years) of volunteer work.
Research posted on one site soon propagates (with attribution) to the other flu sites, and often shows up here in this blog and in others as well. Many of the newshounds post to multiple venues.
As I’ve said before, the amount of work these folks put in is simply staggering. And they serve as a 24/7 early warning system for disease outbreaks around the world.
Be glad you don't have to pay for it.
I certainly couldn’t do what I do without their acumen, generosity, and dedication. And so I try to hat tip (h/t) them as often as I can in this blog.
They have my thanks, and admiration.
UPDATE:
A few hours after this blog post was made, Xinhua News released the following report that confirms the earlier translated story.
Beijing reports H7N9 flu virus carrier
English.news.cn 2013-04-15 11:00:52
BEIJING, April 15 (Xinhua) -- Beijing municipal health authorities said Monday that a four-year-old boy, who was tested positive for H7N9 flu virus, was determined to be a H7N9 flu virus carrier.
The boy, surnamed Zhu, was tested positive for H7N9 flu virus by the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention Sunday evening.
Zhu has so far shown no flu symptoms and is receiving medical observation in Beijing Ditan Hospital.
Local health officials said a neighbor of the boy had bought chicken from the family whose seven-year-old girl became Beijing's first H7N9 case.
The carrier was discovered after local disease control authorities tested 24 people who raise poultry in a village of Cuigezhuang township, Chaoyang District.
Chinese health authorities said on Sunday the new form of flu is spreading but no evidence showed it can be transmitted through human-to-human contact.
