经济学人2019.4.13/Kidney transplants/part1

Kidney transplants

肾移植

The gift of life

生命的礼物

Kidney donors are wanted, dead or alive. There are not enough of either kind

患者们一直等待着肾捐献者，无论是来自活人还是死者。但是两种肾来源都远远供不应求。

Melissa bensouda, of Kansas City, Missouri, was 25 when she was diagnosed with late-stage kidney disease. She had to start dialysis, hooking up three times a week to a machine that filtered her blood. “It wipes you out,” she says. Queasy and fatigued, Ms Bensouda struggled to care for her children and to keep working full time. To secure a place on the waiting list for a kidney transplant, she had to tackle other health problems first. It took a year and cost $10,000 to treat dental problems, to which people with kidney disease are prone. In 2012, after nearly ten years on dialysis, Ms Bensouda was given a transplant. The new kidney lasted only five years. So she is back on the waiting list— along with 95,000 other Americans.

密苏里州堪萨斯城的梅丽莎·本苏达(Melissa bensouda)在25岁时被诊断出患有晚期肾病。她必须开始透析，每周三次连接到一台过滤血液的机器上。她说:“这种痛苦让你痛不欲生。”恶心，疲惫。但本苏达女士依旧要努力照顾她的孩子，并继续全职工作。为了在等待肾移植的名单上占有一席之地，她必须先解决其他健康问题。治疗肾脏病患者易患的牙齿问题花了一年时间，花费了1万美元。2012年，在接受了近10年的透析治疗后，本苏达接受了移植手术。新的肾脏只存活了五年。所以她和其他95000名美国人一起再一次回到了等待名单上。

词汇

Dialysis/  透析

Queasy/呕吐的；不稳定的；催吐的

Fatigued/疲乏的

In a typical year just one in five of them would get a transplant. One in ten would die or become too sick and drop off the list. Europe struggles, too. In the European Union in 2013 more than 4,000 patients died while on a kidney waiting list.

在一个通常典型的年份里，只有五分之一的人会得到移植。十分之一的人会因此死亡或病入膏肓而从名单上划去。在欧洲，情况也是不容乐观。2013年，欧盟有4000多名患者在等待肾脏移植过程中死亡。

And waiting lists are often just the tip of an iceberg. Many patients in Europe, for example, suspect that doctors prefer to keep them on dialysis—which is a big, lucrative business—rather than to get them fit for a transplant. In America many people who need a transplant never join the list because they cannot pay for the drugs they need to take afterwards.

而等候名单往往只是冰山一角。例如，欧洲的许多病人怀疑医生宁愿让他们继续透析，而不是让他们适合做移植手术。透析是一项利润丰厚的大生意。在美国，许多需要移植的人从来没有加入这个名单，因为他们无法支付他们以后需要服用的药物。

词汇

Lucrative/有利可图的，赚钱的；合算的

Some people’s kidneys fail because of a genetic disease or an injury. But the main reason is diabetes. This is caused predominantly by obesity, which is rampant in more and more countries. So kidney waiting lists will become even longer.

有些人的肾脏会因为基因疾病或受伤而衰竭。但主要原因是糖尿病。这主要是由肥胖引起的，而肥胖在越来越多的国家肆虐。这导致了肾脏的等待名单会变得更长。

词汇

Diabetes/糖尿病

Predominantly/主要地；显著地

Rampant/  猖獗的；蔓延的