新闻周刊:对抗耐药菌(7)

Infection specialists are also focusing on getting hospitals to do a better job at containing resistant¹ bugs² when they pop up, instead of spreading them among patient populations. About 5 percent of all patients in U.S. hospitals end up with a “nosocomial” infection—that is, an infection acquired at the hospital. It's not hard to see how. Hospitals are dense³ gatherings⁴ of sick people with weakened immune systems and various wounds and punctures⁵, constantly poked⁷ and prodded⁹ by fingers and tools that move around the hospital to poke⁶ and prod⁸ others.

感染专家还致力于让医院更好地控制耐药性细菌的出现，而不是在患者中传播。在美国医院里，大约有5%的病人最终会患上“院内感染”，也就是在医院里获得的感染。不难看出原因。医院里密集地聚集着免疫力低下的病人，他们身上有各种各样的伤口和刺伤，不断地被手指和工具戳来戳去。

An aging population and new procedures have left patients all the more vulnerable. Johns Hopkins' Zenilman found in an informal survey he conducted that more than half of all the patients he asked had some sort of implant¹⁰, a common source of infection. “The patients in hospitals today as a group are much sicker than any we've seen in history,” he says. “Research shows that, on average, hospitals aren't following the right precautions about half the time,” says the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology's Hoffmann. “It's our biggest struggle.”

人口老龄化和新的治疗方法使得病人更加脆弱。约翰霍普金斯大学的泽尼曼在他进行的一项非正式调查中发现，在他询问的所有病人中，有一半以上的人接受了某种植入物，这是一种常见的感染源。“今天医院里的病人作为一个整体比我们历史上见过的任何病人都要严重，”他表示。“研究表明，平均而言，医院有一半的时间没有采取正确的预防措施，”感染控制和流行病学专业人员协会的霍夫曼称。“这儿是我们最大的困境。”

Hospitals are beginning to change their ways. Many now use trash can–shaped robots to disinfect walls with ultraviolet light (the rooms have to be empty because the light is harmful to humans too). At Riverside Medical Center, south of Chicago, two robots from a company called Xenex disinfect more than 30 rooms a day.

医院开始改变他们的方式。现在很多人用垃圾桶形状的机器人用紫外线给墙壁消毒(房间必须是空的，因为紫外线对人类也有害)。在芝加哥南部的河畔医疗中心，来自Xenex公司的两个机器人每天为30多个房间消毒。

Keeping hospitals clean would be easier if bacteria couldn't stick to surfaces such as tabletops and clothes. Melissa Reynolds, a Colorado State University biomedical engineer, is developing new bacteria-resistant materials. Health care workers' clothing and other hospital materials and surfaces wouldn't need as much disinfection if they didn't pick up bugs in the first place. Fighting bacteria is accidental mission for Reynolds. She had been investigating ways of avoiding clots¹¹ in the meshes¹² that surgeons use to keep patients' arteries¹³ open. Applying a coating of copper¹⁴ nanocrystals to the meshes seemed to keep blood cells from sticking to the surfaces. She noticed that bacteria didn't stick to the nanocrystal coatings either. Then a student in her lab had a eureka moment: Why not dip cotton fabric¹⁵ in a solution of the nanocrystals to keep bacteria from sticking to the fabric? “We were discovering new materials with strong antibiotic¹⁶ properties,” says Reynolds. “That led us in a new direction.”

如果细菌不能附着在桌面和衣服等表面，那么保持医院的清洁就容易多了。科罗拉多州立大学生物医学工程师梅丽莎·雷诺兹正在开发新的抗菌材料。如果医护人员的衣服、医院的其他材料和表面一开始就没有感染病菌，就不需要那么多的消毒。对雷诺兹来说，对抗细菌是一项附加任务。她一直在研究如何避免外科医生用来保持病人动脉畅通的网状结构中出现血栓。在网格上涂上一层铜纳米晶似乎可以防止血细胞粘附在网格表面。她注意到细菌也不会粘附在纳米晶体涂层上。然后，她实验室里的一名学生灵光一闪:为什么不把棉织物浸入纳米晶体溶液中，以防止细菌粘在织物上？“我们发现了具有强大抗菌性能的新材料，” 雷诺兹说。“这把我们引向一个新方向。”

1 resistant   

adj.(to)抵抗的，有抵抗力的

参考例句：

• Many pests are resistant to the insecticide.许多害虫对这种杀虫剂有抵抗力。
• They imposed their government by force on the resistant population.他们以武力把自己的统治强加在持反抗态度的人民头上。

2 bugs   

adj.疯狂的，发疯的n.窃听器( bug的名词复数 )；病菌；虫子；[计算机]（制作软件程序所产生的意料不到的）错误

参考例句：

• All programs have bugs and need endless refinement. 所有的程序都有漏洞，都需要不断改进。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The sacks of rice were swarming with bugs. 一袋袋的米里长满了虫子。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 dense   

a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的

参考例句：

• The general ambushed his troops in the dense woods. 将军把部队埋伏在浓密的树林里。
• The path was completely covered by the dense foliage. 小路被树叶厚厚地盖了一层。

4 gatherings   

聚集( gathering的名词复数 )； 收集； 采集； 搜集

参考例句：

• His conduct at social gatherings created a lot of comment. 他在社交聚会上的表现引起许多闲话。
• During one of these gatherings a pupil caught stealing. 有一次，其中一名弟子偷窃被抓住。

5 punctures   

n.（尖物刺成的）小孔( puncture的名词复数 )；（尤指）轮胎穿孔；（尤指皮肤上被刺破的）扎孔；刺伤v.在（某物）上穿孔( puncture的第三人称单数 )；刺穿（某物）；削弱（某人的傲气、信心等）；泄某人的气

参考例句：

• My car has had two punctures this week. 这个星期我的汽车轮胎被戳破两次。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• SCULLY: Needle punctures, maybe. An animal bite. Electrocution of some kind. 针刺的，也许。动物的咬伤。某种电击。 来自互联网

6 poke   

n.刺，戳，袋；vt.拨开，刺，戳；vi.戳，刺，捅，搜索，伸出，行动散慢

参考例句：

• We never thought she would poke her nose into this.想不到她会插上一手。
• Don't poke fun at me.别拿我凑趣儿。

7 poked   

v.伸出( poke的过去式和过去分词 )；戳出；拨弄；与（某人）性交

参考例句：

• She poked him in the ribs with her elbow. 她用胳膊肘顶他的肋部。
• His elbow poked out through his torn shirt sleeve. 他的胳膊从衬衫的破袖子中露了出来。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 prod   

vt.戳，刺；刺激，激励

参考例句：

• The crisis will prod them to act.那个危机将刺激他们行动。
• I shall have to prod him to pay me what he owes.我将不得不催促他把欠我的钱还给我。

9 prodded   

v.刺，戳( prod的过去式和过去分词 )；刺激；促使；（用手指或尖物）戳

参考例句：

• She prodded him in the ribs to wake him up. 她用手指杵他的肋部把他叫醒。
• He prodded at the plate of fish with his fork. 他拿叉子戳弄着那盘鱼。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 implant   

vt.注入，植入，灌输

参考例句：

• A good teacher should implant high ideals in children.好教师应该把高尚理想灌输给孩子们。
• The operation to implant the artificial heart took two hours.人工心脏植入手术花费了两小时。

11 clots   

n.凝块( clot的名词复数 )；血块；蠢人；傻瓜v.凝固( clot的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• When you cut yourself, blood clots and forms a scab. 你割破了，血会凝固、结痂。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Milk clots when it turns sour. 奶变酸就凝块。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

12 meshes   

网孔( mesh的名词复数 )； 网状物； 陷阱； 困境

参考例句：

• The net of Heaven has large meshes, but it lets nothing through. 天网恢恢，疏而不漏。
• This net has half-inch meshes. 这个网有半英寸见方的网孔。

13 arteries   

n.动脉( artery的名词复数 )；干线，要道

参考例句：

• Even grafting new blood vessels in place of the diseased coronary arteries has been tried. 甚至移植新血管代替不健康的冠状动脉的方法都已经试过。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• This is the place where the three main arteries of West London traffic met. 这就是伦敦西部三条主要交通干线的交汇处。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 copper   

n.铜；铜币；铜器；adj.铜(制)的；(紫)铜色的

参考例句：

• The students are asked to prove the purity of copper.要求学生们检验铜的纯度。
• Copper is a good medium for the conduction of heat and electricity.铜是热和电的良导体。

15 fabric   

n.织物，织品，布；构造，结构，组织

参考例句：

• The fabric will spot easily.这种织品很容易玷污。
• I don't like the pattern on the fabric.我不喜欢那块布料上的图案。

16 antibiotic   

adj.抗菌的；n.抗生素

参考例句：

• The doctor said that I should take some antibiotic.医生说我应该服些用抗生素。
• Antibiotic can be used against infection.抗菌素可以用来防止感染。