美国国家公共电台 NPR Anthrax Outbreak In Russia Thought To Be Result Of Thawing Permafrost

Anthrax Outbreak In Russia Thought To Be Result Of Thawing¹ Permafrost

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Russia is fighting a mysterious outbreak of disease. Dozens of people are hospitalized due to anthrax. Yes, anthrax, the bacterial² infection so deadly that certain strains have been made into weapons. Now authorities do not know how this outbreak started in Siberia, but here's their hypothesis. They think that a heat wave thawed³ out anthrax that had been frozen in a reindeer⁴ carcass for decades. Here's NPR's Michaeleen Doucleff.

MICHAELEEN DOUCLEFF, BYLINE⁵: The place where the outbreak is occurring is called the end of the earth, or the Yamal Peninsula. It lies high above the Arctic Circle at the top of the world. It's so cold there that the soil, called permafrost, is frozen solid more than 1,000 feet deep, or about the height of the Empire State Building.

Jean-Michel Claverie is a biologist at the National Center for Scientific Research in France. He studies pathogens in Russia's permafrost. I talked to him on Skype. He says the soil in the Yamal Peninsula is like a giant freezer, cold and dark.

JEAN-MICHEL CLAVERIE: Those are very good conditions for bacteria to remain alive for a very long time.

DOUCLEFF: In this case, the bacteria were anthrax. And more than 75 years ago, they killed a reindeer. The body got covered over in a thin layer of permafrost. For decades, it lay there frozen. Then this summer, a heat wave hit and a thick layer of permafrost melted. The theory goes that the reindeer's body rose to the surface. As it warmed up, so did the infectious anthrax.

CLAVERIE: Those infectious agents will come back to life and eventually infect people or herds⁶ of reindeer.

DOUCLEFF: Certain pathogens can lay dormant⁷ for decades in soil and come back to life. Russian officials say they're working hard to get the outbreak under control. They're vaccinating⁸ reindeer, burning the carcasses of dead animals. But Birgitta Evengard in Sweden says there's likely to be more cases of anthrax resurfacing. That's because climate change is causing the temperature in the Arctic Circle to rise very quickly.

BIRGITTA EVENGARD: It's about three times faster than in the rest of the world. And this means that the ice is melting, and the permafrost is thawing.

DOUCLEFF: A hundred years ago, there were repeated anthrax outbreaks in Siberia. More than a million reindeer died. Now there are about 7,000 burial grounds with infected carcasses scattered⁹ across northern Russia.

EVENGARD: It's not that easy to dig to bury these animals, so they are kind of very close to the surface.

DOUCLEFF: Wow. So there could be these outbreaks happening every summer?

EVENGARD: Yes, this is serious.

DOUCLEFF: Evengard is with Umea University and studies how climate change alters the spread of diseases. And she says it's not just anthrax that could be a problem. People and animals have been buried in permafrost for centuries. There could be bodies infected with all kinds of viruses and bacteria, frozen in time. She says scientists are just starting to look for it.

EVENGARD: So we really don't know. This is Pandora's box.

DOUCLEFF: There's the flu that caused the 1918 pandemic that killed more than 50 million people. There's also likely smallpox¹⁰ buried up there and the bubonic plague. So the question for researchers is, could these pathogens, like anthrax, ever be reactivated? Michaeleen Doucleff, NPR News.

1 thawing   

n.熔化，融化v.（气候）解冻( thaw的现在分词 )；（态度、感情等）缓和；（冰、雪及冷冻食物）溶化；软化

参考例句：

• The ice is thawing. 冰在融化。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• It had been snowing and thawing and the streets were sloppy. 天一直在下雪，雪又一直在融化，街上泥泞不堪。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹

2 bacterial   

a.细菌的

参考例句：

• Bacterial reproduction is accelerated in weightless space. 在失重的空间，细菌繁殖加快了。
• Brain lesions can be caused by bacterial infections. 大脑损伤可能由细菌感染引起。

3 thawed   

解冻

参考例句：

• The little girl's smile thawed the angry old man. 小姑娘的微笑使发怒的老头缓和下来。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He thawed after sitting at a fire for a while. 在火堆旁坐了一会儿，他觉得暖和起来了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 reindeer   

n.驯鹿

参考例句：

• The herd of reindeer was being trailed by a pack of wolves.那群驯鹿被一只狼群寻踪追赶上来。
• The life of the Reindeer men was a frontier life.驯鹿时代人的生活是一种边区生活。

5 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

6 herds   

兽群( herd的名词复数 )； 牧群； 人群； 群众

参考例句：

• Regularly at daybreak they drive their herds to the pasture. 每天天一亮他们就把牲畜赶到草场上去。
• There we saw herds of cows grazing on the pasture. 我们在那里看到一群群的牛在草地上吃草。

7 dormant   

adj.暂停活动的；休眠的；潜伏的

参考例句：

• Many animals are in a dormant state during winter.在冬天许多动物都处于睡眠状态。
• This dormant volcano suddenly fired up.这座休眠火山突然爆发了。

8 vaccinating   

给…接种疫苗( vaccinate的现在分词 )； 注射疫苗，接种疫苗

参考例句：

• At first blush, vaccinating the wolves against rabies seems a simple solution. 乍一看来，为狼群注射防狂犬病疫苗是一种简单的办法。
• Also vaccinating children against misers (measles) has saved many lives. 还有，给儿童进行疫苗接种防止麻疹也挽救了许多生命。

9 scattered   

adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的

参考例句：

• Gathering up his scattered papers,he pushed them into his case.他把散乱的文件收拾起来，塞进文件夹里。

10 smallpox   

n.天花

参考例句：

• In 1742 he suffered a fatal attack of smallpox.1742年，他染上了致命的天花。
• Were you vaccinated against smallpox as a child?你小时候打过天花疫苗吗？