《经济学人》双语：为避免抗生素滥用，如何用病毒与细菌做斗争？

原文标题：
Bacteriophages
When viruses are good for you
Bacteria-killing viruses could help avert an antibiotics crisis
噬菌体
病毒有时也对你有好处
杀死细菌的病毒可以帮助避免抗生素危机

How to battle superbugs with viruses that “eat” them
As antibiotic resistance spreads, bacteriophages could help avert a crisis
如何用 "吞噬 "超级细菌的病毒来与细菌做斗争
随着抗生素耐药性的蔓延，噬菌体可以帮助避免危机

[Paragraph 1]
ANTIBIOTICS ARE vital to modern medicine. Their ability to kill bacteria without harming the patient has saved billions of lives directly and made everything from caesarean sections to chemotherapy much safer.
抗生素对现代医学至关重要。它们具有杀死细菌而不伤害人体的能力，这直接拯救了数十亿人的生命，并使从剖腹产到化疗的一切过程变得更加安全。

Life expectancy would drop by a third if they did not exist. But after decades of overuse their powers are fading.
如果没有抗生素，人类预期寿命将下降1/3。但是经过几十年的过度使用，它们的功效正在减弱。

Some bacteria have evolved resistance, creating a growing army of “superbugs” against which there is no effective treatment.
一些细菌已经进化出了抗药性，形成了一支不断壮大的 "超级细菌 "团，目前还没有有效的治疗方法。

Antimicrobial resistance is expected to kill 10m people a year by 2050, up from around 1m in 2019.
预计到2050年，抗菌素耐药性每年将导致 1000 万人死亡，而2019年的数字约为100万人。

[Paragraph 2]
It would be unwise to rely on new antibiotics to solve the problem.
依靠新的抗生素来解决这个问题不明智。

The rate at which resistance emerges is accelerating. Some new drugs last only two years before bacteria devise countermeasures.
耐药性出现的速度正在加快。在病菌产生耐药性之前，一些新药的药效只能持续2年。

When new antibiotics do arrive, doctors often hoard them, prescribing them only grudgingly and for short periods when faced with the most intransigent infections.
即使有了新的抗生素，医生通常也会把它们储藏起来，只有在面对最顽固的感染时，才勉强开一些短期处方。这有助于限制对新药耐药性的传播。

That helps limit the spread of resistance to new drugs. But it also limits sales, making new antibiotics an unattractive proposition for most pharmaceutical firms.
但它也限制了销售，使得新抗生素对大多数制药公司来说没有投资吸引力。

[Paragraph 3]
Governments have been trying to fix the problem by funnelling cash into research and taking stakes in drug firms. That has produced only limited improvements.
为了解决这个问题，各国政府一直努力在向相关研究注入资金和入股制药公司。但问题改进有限。

But there is a promising, if obscure, alternative that is also worth a look.
但是有一个很有前途的（尽管尚不明确）替代方案也值得一看。

Microbiologists have known for decades that disease-causing bacteria can suffer from illnesses of their own.
几十年来，微生物学家已经知道，致病细菌自身也会得病。

They are susceptible to attack by bacteriophages (“phages” for short): specialised viruses that infect bacteria, and often kill them.
它们容易受到噬菌体（简写"phages"）的攻击：噬菌体是感染细菌并杀死细菌的特殊病毒。

[Paragraph 4]
Using one disease-causing organism to fight another has several advantages.
用一种致病生物体对抗另一种生物体有几个优点。

Like antibiotics, phages are picky in their choice of target, leaving human cells alone even as they infect and destroy bacterial ones.
与抗生素相同的是，噬菌体在选择目标时也很挑剔，即使感染和破坏细菌细胞，也不会影响人类细胞。

Unlike antibiotics, phages can evolve just as readily as bacteria can, meaning that even if bacteria do develop resistance, the phages may be able to evolve around it in turn.
与抗生素不同的是，噬菌体可以像细菌一样容易进化，这意味着即使细菌产生了抗药性，反过来噬菌体也会根据细菌的进化而进化。

[Paragraph 5]
That, at least, is the theory. The trouble with phages is that comparatively little is known about them.
这至少在理论上可行。但问题是人们对噬菌体知之甚少。

After the discovery of penicillin, the first antibiotic, in 1928, they were largely ignored in the West.
1928年第一种抗生素（盘尼西林）被发现后，西方世界基本上忽略了噬菌体的研究。

Only the Soviet Union, powered by research and production facilities in Georgia, continued to use them.
只有苏联在格鲁吉亚的研究和生产设施的支持下，继续使用噬菌体。

Given the gravity of the antibiotic-resistance problem, it would be a good idea to find out more.
鉴于抗生素耐药性问题的严重性，不妨多研究一下噬菌体。

[Paragraph 6]
The first step is to run more clinical trials. Interest from Western firms is growing.
第一步是进行更多的临床试验。西方公司对此越来越感兴趣。

But it is being held back by the fact that phages are an even less appealing investment than antibiotics.
但由于噬菌体是一种比抗生素更没有吸引力的投资，这一事实阻碍了它的研究。

Since they are natural organisms there may be trouble patenting them, making it hard to recoup any investment.
由于噬菌体是天然生物，因此可能难以申请专利，投资也难以有回报。

[Paragraph 7]
Governments can help. They could fund basic research into phage therapy, and clarify the law around exactly what is and is not patentable.
政府可以提供帮助。他们可以为噬菌体疗法的基础研究提供资金，并用法律明确规定什么可申请专利，什么不可申请专利。

In time they could set up phage banks and manufacturing processes, so as to make production cheaper.
随着时间的推移，他们可以建立噬菌体库和制造工艺，从而降低生产成本。

And they could spread awareness of the risks of overusing antibiotics, and the potential benefits of phages.
他们还可以普及滥用抗生素的风险意识，并宣传噬菌体的潜在益处。

If you are put off by the thought of ingesting a virus, consider that penicillin was a mould.
如果一想到要摄入病毒你就退缩，那请你想一想青霉素还是一种霉菌呢。

[Paragraph 8]
Going viral
以毒攻毒

The history of antibiotics themselves shows that governments can help nudge the private sector into action.
抗生素本身的历史表明，政府可以帮助推动私营企业采取行动。

Penicillin was largely ignored at first by doctors, who regarded it as too difficult to produce.
起初，青霉素在很大程度上被医生忽视了，他们认为它太难生产了。

It took the tragedy of the second world war, and the intervention of the American and British governments, to kickstart the modern antibiotics industry.
由于第二次世界大战的悲剧，以及美国和英国政府的干预，这才启动了现代抗生素产业。

Compared with a war, antibiotic resistance is a slow-burning problem. Nonetheless, the time to act is now.
与战争相比，抗生素耐药性并不是一个急需解决的燃眉之急。但现在也是该采取行动的时候了。

（恭喜读完，本篇英语词汇量610左右）
原文出自：2023年5月6日《The Economist》Leaders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）
噬菌体（bacteriophage）是一种可以感染和繁殖于细菌体内的病毒。它们是一类极小的生物，通常只有几十纳米大小。噬菌体在寻找其宿主细菌时非常敏锐，在许多情况下，它们可以通过检测特定的化学信号来发现自己需要攻击的细菌。当噬菌体感染了它的宿主细菌后，它会注入自己的遗传物质到细胞内，并利用细胞的生物合成机制来复制自己的基因组和蛋白质。随着时间的推移，新的噬菌体会在细胞内积累，最终导致细胞破裂并释放出许多新的噬菌体到周围环境中，这些噬菌体又可以继续感染新的细菌。噬菌体对人类的影响有很多方面。一方面，噬菌体可以被视为一种治疗细菌感染的潜在药物。例如，使用噬菌体治疗耐药性细菌感染已被研究多年，并已在一些国家获得批准用于治疗人类疾病。另一方面，噬菌体对环境和食品安全也有着广泛的应用。例如，在食品生产和加工过程中，噬菌体可以被用来控制和预防细菌污染。噬菌体是一种小而强大的生物，有望成为未来治疗和预防细菌感染的有力工具。

青霉素（Penicillin）的发现过程可以追溯到1928年，由苏格兰生物学家亚历山大·弗莱明（Alexander Fleming）在伦敦大学医学院工作期间完成。据传，1928年9月，弗莱明正在研究一种叫做链球菌（Staphylococcus）的细菌，他将这些细菌培养在实验室中的琼脂平板上。然而，在某一天，他意外地忘记了清理实验室并留下了这个平板，过了几天之后，他再次检查平板时发现其中有一些区域周围的细菌已经死亡，并且这些区域周围还有一些黄色的斑点。经过进一步的观察和分析，弗莱明得出结论：这些黄色的斑点是由一种被称为“Penicillium notatum”的真菌产生的。他注意到，这种真菌能够释放出一种化合物，可以杀死附近的细菌，从而使那些区域周围的细菌不能生长繁殖。这种真菌产生的化合物可能有助于对抗细菌感染。最终，青霉素作为第一个广泛使用的抗生素被引入到临床医学中，对人类健康产生了深远的影响。

【重点句子】（3个）
Using one disease-causing organism to fight another has several advantages.
用一种致病生物体对抗另一种生物体有几个优点。

Since they are natural organisms there may be trouble patenting them, making it hard to recoup any investment.
由于噬菌体是天然生物，因此可能难以申请专利，投资也难以有回报。

Compared with a war, antibiotic resistance is a slow-burning problem. Nonetheless, the time to act is now.
与战争相比，抗生素耐药性并不是一个急需解决的燃眉之急。但现在也是该采取行动的时候了。