《经济学人》双语：宠物家庭的儿童过敏症低？

原文标题：
The hygiene hypothesis
Pet theories
More evidence that animals reduce childhood allergies
卫生假说
宠物理论
更多证据表明动物能降低儿童过敏症

Except for hamsters, which make things worse
仓鼠除外

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THE PROBLEM with a catchy name is that sometimes it catches on too well.

有时一个名字太过引人注目，反而会带来问题。

Take the hygiene hypothesis, outlined in 1989 by David Strachan of St George’s, a hospital and medical school in London.

以卫生假说为例，这是由伦敦圣乔治医院和医学院的大卫·斯特拉彻于1989年提出的假说。

It suggests that the rise of allergenic sensitivity observed in rich countries over the course of the 20th century may have been caused by a corresponding decline in childhood infections, and also by a shift from rural to urban living, so that children are no longer routinely exposed to farm animals.
该假说认为，通过观察，20世纪发达国家的过敏敏感性上升可能是由于童年期的感染相应下降以及从农村向城市生活的转变所致，因为儿童不常接触农场动物。

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Dr Strachan’s work still has much to recommend it.

斯特拉彻的研究仍然有很多值得推荐之处。

What the catchy label has fostered, however, is an erroneous belief that cleanliness is not necessarily a health benefit.

然而，这个朗朗上口的句子促进了一种错误的观念，即“不干不净，吃了没病”。

In reality, says Thomas Marrs, a paediatric allergist at Kings College, London, hygiene is usually about bugs causing infection—and the bugs that may be beneficial are different from those which do that.

伦敦国王学院的儿科过敏症专家托马斯·马斯说，实际上，卫生问题通常是致病菌引起的感染问题——益菌可能与致病菌不同。

But it is plain to see why alternative descriptions, such as “the high turnover and diversity hypothesis” or “the microbial deprivation hypothesis”, have not caught on, more accurate though they may be.
但是，为什么“高周转和多样性假说”或“微生物剥夺假说”等更准确的描述并没有流行起来，这是很容易理解的。

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In an attempt to collect further data on the matter, Okabe Hisao of Fukushima Medical University and his colleagues have trawled through the Japan Environment and Children’s Study, which tracked over 100,000 pregnancies between 2011 and 2014.

为了进一步收集有关这个问题的数据，福岛医科大学的冈部久雄和他的同事们翻阅了《日本环境与儿童研究》，该研究在2011年至2014年间追踪了10多万个孕妇。

Pursuing the animal connection, they looked for correlations between household pet ownership before and immediately after a child’s birth, and any food allergies diagnosed in that child’s first three years. They have just published their results in PLOS ONE.
为了追溯过敏症与动物的联系，他们研究了孩子出生前和出生后家中是否养宠物，与孩子在3岁前是否诊断出任何食物过敏症的相关性。他们刚刚在《PLOS ONE》杂志上发表了他们的研究结果。

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Of the 66,000 or so children they chose to look at, 22% had been born into households with pets, and were thus exposed to microbes and other potential allergens from those animals both before and after birth.

研究者们挑选了约6.6万名儿童进行观察，其中22%出生在有宠物的家庭，因此这些儿童在出生前后都接触到这些动物的微生物和其他可能的过敏原。

Children in households with dogs, the researchers found, had lower rates than average of allergies to eggs, milk and nuts.

研究人员发现，养狗家庭中的儿童对鸡蛋、牛奶和坚果的过敏率低于平均水平。

Those cohabiting with cats seemed more tolerant of eggs, wheat and soyabeans.

养猫家庭中的儿童似乎对鸡蛋、小麦和大豆更具有耐受性。

However, children whose parents kept “turtles” (terrapins, in particular, are popular pets in Japan) appeared unaffected.

然而，养“龟”（尤其是日本颇受欢迎的“水龟”）家庭中的儿童似乎没有受到影响。

And, curiously, those exposed to hamsters appeared more likely than average to be allergic to nuts.
奇怪的是，有仓鼠家庭中的儿童似乎比平均水平更容易对坚果过敏。

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What exactly all this means is unclear.

这一切到底意味着什么尚不清楚。

One potentially important observation is that both pre- and postpartum exposure were needed for the observed effects to show up. Neither, by itself, was sufficient.

一个可能重要的观察是，需要在出生前和出生后都接触才能出现观察到的效果。单独接触某个阶段是不够的。

Possibly, it is the time around birth itself which is the crucial factor, for this is when it is believed that the bulk of a child’s gut flora is established.
可能的原因是，关键因素是妊娠阶段，因为人们认为这是儿童肠道菌群建立的主要时间。

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There are confounding variables. The researchers themselves point out that pet-owning households are more likely to live in the countryside, with its other sources of immune-system-stimulating factors.

存在混杂变量。研究人员自己指出，养宠物的家庭更可能住在农村，那里有其他刺激免疫系统的因素。

And, as Dr Marrs observes, allergy-prone families are less likely to own pets in the first place.

而且，正如马斯博士所观察的，易过敏的家庭首先不太可能拥有宠物。

These facts, rather than the presence of companion animals, might explain at least part of the effect.
有这些事实的存在，而不是有宠物的存在，可能至少解释了部分效应。

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Confirming or denying this will need more study.

确认或否认这一点需要更多的研究。

Nevertheless, Dr Okabe’s contribution is an interesting addition to the debate about Dr Strachan’s brainchild.
然而，冈部的贡献是对斯特拉彻假说争论的一个有趣补充。

（恭喜读完，本篇英语词汇量519左右）
原文出自：2023年4月1日《The Economist》Science and technology版块

精读笔记来源于：自由英语之路

本文翻译整理: Irene本文编辑校对: Irene
仅供个人英语学习交流使用。

【补充资料】（来自于网络）
1989 年，来自英国的流行病学专家大卫·斯特罗恩（David Strachan）首次提出了一个全新的医学概念——卫生假说（Hygiene hypothesis）。大卫在一项儿童的调查中发现，家里兄弟姐妹比较多的孩子，患枯草热和湿疹的概率要比独生子女更低。大卫认为，这是因为非独生子女从小和其他人的接触机会更多，更有可能接触到各式各样的微生物和寄生虫等病原体，在这个过程中，他们的免疫系统也得到了锻炼，发生过敏性疾病的概率也因此被降低。换句话说，也就是“不干不净，吃了没病”在幼年时适当感染微生物，反而可以促进免疫平衡，在成年后减少某些疾病的发生。

【重点句子】（3 个）
Children in households with dogs, the researchers found, had lower rates than average of allergies to eggs, milk and nuts.
研究人员发现，养狗家庭中的儿童对鸡蛋、牛奶和坚果的过敏率低于平均水平。

Possibly, it is the time around birth itself which is the crucial factor, for this is when it is believed that the bulk of a child’s gut flora is established.
可能的原因是，关键因素是妊娠阶段，因为人们认为这是儿童肠道菌群建立的主要时间。

And, as Dr Marrs observes, allergy-prone families are less likely to own pets in the first place.
而且，正如马斯博士所观察的，易过敏的家庭首先不太可能拥有宠物。