VOA慢速英语2015 结核病发现于18世纪的尸体

Tuberculosis¹ Found in 18th Century Bodies 结核病发现于18世纪的尸体

Researchers have found tuberculosis bacteria in 200-year-old human remains². The researchers say the discovery is surprising. The remains came from a Hungarian church where wealthy Europeans were buried. Today, tuberculosis affects mostly poor people. The finding shows how the deadly lung disease has changed over time.   

Today, Tuberculosis -- or TB -- mostly affects poor people or those already infected with the AIDS virus. Many TB patients live in the developing world. TB rarely affects wealthy people in developed countries.

But the situation was different in Europe 250 years ago. The researchers found that in the 18th century, wealthy Europeans also suffered from TB. Sometimes the Europeans even had more than one kind of the disease.  

A report in the journal “Nature Communications” describes the findings. It says the researchers examined the remains of 26 people. Their bodies were kept at the Dominican Church in Vacs, Hungary. The remains were mummified – that is, they had not broken down.

The researchers say 8 of the 26 bodies had signs of tuberculosis bacteria. In fact, researchers were able to identify 14 different TB genomes among the remains. Five of the mummies were infected with more than one kind of TB.  

One of the researchers was Mark Pallen. He is with the University of Warwick in Britain. He says the new evidence shows people in the 18th century often suffered from several different strains of TB.

For example, he says, researchers discovered a mother and daughter who were both infected with many TB strains. He says they may have passed the disease to each other.

The discovery makes researchers believe that many people across Europe suffered from TB. The disease spreads easily through a population.

Mr. Pallen says the discovery may make doctors think differently about tuberculosis. Researchers today usually expect patients to have only one kind of TB. 

“I don’t think I can claim single-handedly to have changed the field in any way. But it’s just changing the way people think, and it’s just making people think more carefully about assumptions³ about what we do at the moment.”

Today, researchers say a number of TB infections have been discovered in South Africa, where many people have the virus that causes AIDS. Being infected with more than one strain of TB makes treating the disease difficult.

Mr. Pallen’s team studied changes in both old and new TB bacteria samples. He says their research suggests a common ancestor for the current bacterium⁴ existed nearly 6,000 years ago -- as far back as ancient Rome.

Words in This Story

mummified – adj. keeping something from breaking down, for instance, by using oils or heat

genomes – n. the genetic⁵ material that describes the qualities of an individual

strains – n. kinds or sorts

samples – n. a group taken from a larger group to get information

1 tuberculosis   

n.结核病，肺结核

参考例句：

• People used to go to special health spring to recover from tuberculosis.人们常去温泉疗养胜地治疗肺结核。
• Tuberculosis is a curable disease.肺结核是一种可治愈的病。

2 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

3 assumptions   

假定，臆断( assumption的名词复数 )； （责任的）承担； （他人债务的）承继； [the A-][基督教]1)。 圣母升天

参考例句：

• Their reasoning was based on a set of unstated assumptions. 他们的推理是以一系列未说明的假定为基础的。
• Your argument is based on a set of questionable assumptions. 你的论证建立在一套有问题的假设上。

4 bacterium   

n.(pl.)bacteria 细菌

参考例句：

• The bacterium possibly goes in the human body by the mouth.细菌可能通过口进入人体。
• A bacterium is identified as the cause for his duodenal ulcer.一种细菌被断定为造成他十二指肠溃疡的根源。

5 genetic   

adj.遗传的，遗传学的

参考例句：

• It's very difficult to treat genetic diseases.遗传性疾病治疗起来很困难。
• Each daughter cell can receive a full complement of the genetic information.每个子细胞可以收到遗传信息的一个完全补偿物。