第1442期:Man vs bacteria

If you live in England and have a mild infection, don't ask your GP to recommend antibiotics. 如果您居住在英格兰并且感染轻微，请不要让您的全科医生推荐抗生素。

He'll probably say 'no' and give you something else. 

他可能会说“不”，然后给你一些别的东西。

This is part of an initiative to put a stop to harmful infections becoming resistant to these drugs.

这是阻止有害感染对这些药物产生抗药性的倡议的一部分。

Recent figures from the NHS have shown that the number of prescriptions for all types of antibiotics were down by 7.3% on the previous year to about 34 million in 2015 and 2016, which is considered a success by the authorities.

NHS 的最新数据显示，2015 年和 2016 年，各类抗生素的处方数量比上一年下降了 7.3%，至约 3400 万张，当局认为这是成功的。

Peter Taylor, Professor of Microbiology, UCL School of Pharmacy, says that antibiotics are probably "the safest and most effective drugs ever produced, 

UCL 药学院微生物学教授 Peter Taylor 说，抗生素可能是“有史以来最安全、最有效的药物，

but they have an Achilles heel - every time we use an antibiotic it alters the levels of bacteria out there in the environment and engenders resistance in a way that is very similar to Darwinian natural selection".

但它们有一个致命弱点——每次我们使用抗生素时，它都会改变环境中细菌的水平，并以与达尔文自然选择非常相似的方式产生抗药性”。

The power of these substances was discovered by Alexander Fleming in 1928 almost by chance. 

这些物质的力量几乎是由亚历山大弗莱明在 1928 年偶然发现的。

The Scottish bacteriologist returned to his laboratory after a holiday to find a bacteria-free circle around a growth of mould on a Petri dish.

 这位苏格兰细菌学家在假期结束后回到他的实验室，在培养皿上的霉菌生长周围发现了一个无菌圈。

It gave us our first antibiotic: penicillin.

它给了我们第一个抗生素：青霉素。

The availability of these drugs revolutionised the treatment of infections. 

这些药物的出现彻底改变了感染的治疗。

In the past STIs spread by bacteria were often incurable and deadly. 

在过去，由细菌传播的性传播感染通常是无法治愈且致命的。

Today all it takes to treat them is a trip to the clinic and a course of antibiotics. 

今天，治疗它们所需要的只是去诊所和抗生素疗程。

Childbirth was very dangerous and routinely ended in death for both mother and baby. 

分娩是非常危险的，并且经常以母亲和婴儿的死亡告终。

Now the risk of a woman dying in England and Wales during labour is between 40 and 50 times lower than 60 years ago.

现在，英格兰和威尔士妇女在分娩期间死亡的风险比 60 年前低 40 到 50 倍。

Bacteria will continue to evolve to seek survival and we have to up our game. 

细菌将继续进化以求生存，我们必须提高自己的水平。

There hasn't been a new class of antibiotics since the 1980s and pharmaceutical companies are looking into a wide-range of alternatives – from compound from insects to nanotechnology - to develop new weapons in the continuous war against superbugs.

自 1980 年代以来一直没有新的抗生素类别，制药公司正在寻找范围广泛的替代品——从昆虫的化合物到纳米技术——来开发新的武器，以对抗超级细菌的持续战争。

词汇表

infection  感染
GP (general practitioner)  全科医生，普通医师
antibiotics  抗生素
NHS (National Health Service)  全民医疗服务制度
prescription  处方，药方
microbiology  微生物学
pharmacy  药店，（此处指）药剂学
Achilles heel  致命弱点，致命伤
Darwinian natural selection  达尔文的自然选择（学说）
bacteriologist  细菌学家
mould  霉，霉菌
Petri dish  皮氏培养皿
penicillin  盘尼西林，青霉素
STI (sexually-transmitted infections)  性传播疾病
incurable  无法治愈的
labour  分娩
pharmaceutical  制药的
nanotechnology  纳米技术
superbug  超级病菌