没有人知道,下一次瘟疫将在何时或者何地发生,或者下一次瘟疫将来自大自然的攻击还是生物恐怖主义的攻击。 可是,下一次瘟疫即将发生。 下一次瘟疫或许来自一种新发现的致病因子,或者来自一种自然突变,这种突变产生一种旧微生物的新变种。下一次瘟疫甚至可能是从某个实验室逃逸出来的。或者,下一次瘟疫可能由某种微生物引起,这种微生物在变得能抵抗标准抗生素后,广泛而迅速地传播开来。 No one knows when or where the next plague will occur, or the next plague will come from nature or from bioterrorism. However, the next plague is about to happen. The next plague may come from a newly discovered virulence factor or from a natural mutation that produces a new variant of the old microbes. The next plague could even have escaped from a laboratory. Or, the next plague could be caused by a microorganism that spreads widely and rapidly after it becomes resistant to standard antibiotics.