北京——上周，有一则新闻就像是传染病灾难片中的病原体一样席卷了北京城，报道称，在北京已经臭名昭著的雾霾里，一些细菌具有抗生素耐药性基因。

　　“Drug-resistant bacteria make people very afraid,” The Beijing Evening News said in an article reposted by Xinhua, the state news agency, after a scientific study by Swedish researchers drew interest during yet another flare-up of hazardous smog.

　　在新一轮有害健康的雾霾爆发期间，瑞典研究人员的一项科学研究吸引了人们的兴趣。“耐药菌让很多人感到非常害怕，”《北京晚报》在官方通讯社新华社转发的一篇文章中说。

　　The study, published in October in the journal Microbiome, found antibiotic-resistant genetic material in the smog but no evidence of live bacteria capable of infecting anyone.

　　这项研究今年10月发表在《微生物》(Microbiome)杂志上，研究人员在北京的雾霾中发现了含有抗生素耐药性的遗传物质，不过没有证据表明活体细菌可以感染任何人。

　　That did not make residents of Beijing feel much better, though.

　　但是，这并没有让北京居民的感觉好多少。

　　The actress Zhang Ziyi perhaps best summed up the feelings among many of Beijing’s 22 million residents by writing on her Weibo account on Saturday that the smog made her want to pick up her 11-month-old daughter and fly away. Ms. Zhang worried that it “made it easier to get sick.”

　　演员章子怡或许最好地总结了北京2200万居民中许多人的感受。她上周六在自己的微博账号上写道，雾霾令她想要带着11个月大的女儿上飞机走人。章子怡担心它让人“更容易生病”。

　　By Monday, most Chinese news reports speculating about the threat had been taken offline, replaced by articles quoting an unidentified expert from the city’s Health Department advising that there was nothing to worry about.

　　至周一，大多数对这种威胁进行猜测的中文新闻报道都已撤掉，替换为援引市卫计委未指明身份的专家的话所做的报道，后者表示没什么可担心的。

　　But to cynical Chinese, accustomed to chronic smog and other health hazards including melamine in baby milk powder, the use of recycled oil in restaurants and clenbuterol-fed pigs, the censorship and rebuttals merely signaled that there was, perhaps, something to worry about.

　　然而对充满怀疑的中国人来说，审查和反驳仅仅意味着，或许真的有什么值得担心的地方。他们习惯了长期存在的雾霾和其他有害健康的事物，包括婴儿奶粉中的三聚氰胺、餐馆里使用的回收油，以及喂了瘦肉精的猪。

　　“Speechless!” and “Run, here comes an expert!” were two typical comments circulating online, now deleted.

　　“无语！”和“快跑，专家来了！”是网上流传的两种典型评论，它们现在已遭删除。

　　“Hurry and develop a face mask that keeps out harmful bacteria and superbugs,” a user identified as Hengkong chushi wrote in response to an article on Tencent, titled: “Officials Respond to Beijing’s Antibiotic-Resistant Smog Superbugs: No Harm to Humans.”

　　“赶快研制一种口罩，挡住有害菌，吸进超级菌。”一位名为“横空出世”的用户在腾讯新闻发布的一篇文章下评论道。这篇文章的标题是《官方回应北京雾霾现耐药“超级菌”：对人体无害》。

　　“Don’t just say ‘no harm,’” another commenter named Sun Rain wrote. “Hurry up and develop new laws and new drugs, to fend off a major peril that could develop.”

　　“别先说无害，”另一位名为“太阳雨”的用户写道。“赶快研发新法新药，预防万一发生大规模危害吧。”

　　Though fears of airborne bacteria were unfounded, there is a growing health problem of antibiotic resistance. Antibiotics are heavily overprescribed in China, doctors and researchers say.

　　尽管对空气中浮游菌的担忧没什么依据，但是由抗生素耐药性带来的健康问题却日益增多。医生和研究人员表示，在中国抗生素被医生滥开的情况很严重。

　　The study said “very little if anything about risks for acquiring an infection from breathing urban air,” Joakim Larsson, one of the authors of the study, a professor of environmental pharmacology at the University of Gothenburg’s Sahlgrenska Academy and director of its Center for Antibiotic Resistance Research, wrote in an email responding to a request for comment.

　　该研究的作者之一、哥德堡大学萨尔格伦斯卡医学院(University of Gothenburg’s Sahlgrenska Academy)环境药理学教授兼抗生素耐药性研究中心(Center for Antibiotic Resistance Research)主任约阿基姆?拉松(Joakim Larsson)在回应时报置评请求的邮件中写道：这项研究几乎没有提及“因在城市里呼吸空气而感染的风险”。

　　In the report, the researchers studied different locations around the world for antibiotic-resistant genes, including the human gut, the skin, wastewater, soil, pharmaceutically polluted sites and, in an apparent innovation, Beijing smog.

　　在这份报告中，研究人员研究了全世界的不同地点，寻找耐抗生素基因，包括人类的内脏、皮肤、废水、土壤、遭到药物污染的地点，还有北京的雾霾——显然是一种创新的选择。

　　In what they described as “a limited set of deeply sequenced air samples from a Beijing smog event,” they identified about 64 types of antibiotic-resistant genes, making Beijing smog one of two environments with “the largest relative abundance and/or diversity” of antibiotic-resistant genes, including genes with resistance to last-resort antibiotics. The other, already known, is environments polluted by pharmaceutical factories.

　　在被他们描述为“从北京一个有雾霾的场合获取的有限的一系列详尽排序的空气样本”中，他们找到了64种耐抗生素基因，这让北京的雾霾成为耐抗生素基因“相对丰度或多样性最大的”两种环境之一，其中包含对最强大的抗生素有耐药性的基因。另一种已经为人知的环境，是被制药厂污染的地方。

　　“We have studied DNA from bacteria in the air and found a large variety of genes that can make bacteria resistant to antibiotics, including some of the most powerful antibiotics we have,” Mr. Larsson wrote in the email. “This was a surprising finding to us, and we think it warrants further studies.”

　　“我们研究了空气中细菌里的DNA，发现了许多种可以让病菌对抗生素产生抵抗力的基因，包括我们拥有的一些力量最强的抗生素，”拉松在邮件中写道。“对我们来说，这是一个意外的发现，我们认为有必要对它展开进一步的研究。”

　　Others appeared to agree.

　　其他人似乎也这么认为。

　　“This is important work that may provide insights into the dissemination of antibiotic resistance not only in Beijing but in other cities as well,” W. Ian Lipkin, director of the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, wrote in an email.

　　“这是很重要的工作，不仅可以为北京，也可以为其他城市的抗生素耐药性传播提供启示，”哥伦比亚大学梅尔曼公共卫生学院(Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health)感染与免疫研究中心主任W?伊恩?李普金(W. Ian Lipkin)在一封邮件中写道。

　　“It’s not clear that bacteria in smog are a health threat,” Dr. Lipkin wrote, noting that smog may be the more likely cause of health problems.

　　“目前还不能确定，雾霾中的细菌是否会对健康构成威胁，”李普金写道，同时指出雾霾更有可能带来健康问题。

　　“What is clear is that the air isn’t clear. Pollution results in damage to airways that increases susceptibility to a wide range of viruses as well as bacteria,” he wrote.

　　“可以确定的是，那里的空气不干净。污染给肺的气道带来破坏，令人更容易感染种类繁多的病毒和细菌，”他写道。

　　“One question not addressed is whether smog stabilizes bacteria in a way that normal air does not,” he added. “Bacteria probably don’t replicate in the air. More likely that they settle somewhere and do, exchanging genetic material in liquid or on surfaces.”

　　“有一个疑问没有解决，那就是雾霾是否在某种程度上以一种普通空气无法实现的方式令细菌保持了稳定，”他接着写道。“细菌可能不会在空气中繁殖。它们更有可能在某些地方停下来，进行繁殖，在液体或某些物质表面交换遗传物质。”

　　State news outlets are dispensing health advice: To minimize illness during smog attacks, get enough sleep, eat foods that help you expectorate, flush out your nose with saltwater and wash your hands.

　　官方媒体机构给人们提供的健康建议是：为在雾霾天气里将患病的几率降到最低，应保持充足的睡眠，注意饮食清淡，勤洗手和用盐水洗鼻。

　　Heavy smog was predicted again in Beijing for three days, starting on Friday.

　　预计从周五开始，为期三天的重度雾霾将再度降临北京。