字神帝國英語天地

今日主題：Quick Test Could Tell If a Patient Needs Antibiotics  使用抗生素需謹慎

洪欣老師推薦：托福聽力最好的課外教材：60-Second Science
康康精選托福會考的主題，堅持每天精聽一定會進步的哦!!

建議方法：
1. 先聽兩三遍 (不看文稿)
2. 再一句一句聽寫 (每句都要聽寫數遍，直到寫出85%以上的字)
3. 最後check文稿，看哪聽不出來，單字沒背過，還是發音不熟。
4. 堅持天天聽，就能每天進步哦。

MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：喜歡的同學，幫忙推或按讚哦~~
http://online1.tingclass.net/voa…/2016/20160304sa_health.mp3

只有音檔怎夠，聽不懂地方，不用怕，康康幫你準備好中英文稿了：

中英文稿：
When patients show up in a hospital with a respiratory illness, they’re usually given an antibiotic, which do not work against viral infections. Even though most of these respiratory infections are viral.
病人出現呼吸系統疾病時，醫生通常會給病人注射抗生素，但抗生素並不能治療病毒性疾病。而大多數呼吸系統疾病都是病毒性的。

It’s estimated that in these cases antibiotics are incorrectly prescribed nearly three quarters of the time. And the overuse of antibiotics is a huge problem, helping to drive the development of strains of bacteria that are resistant to our antibiotics.
據估計，大多數情況下，抗生素的注射時間都是錯誤的。同時，濫用抗生素也是一個大問題。因為濫用抗生素會使一些細菌具有耐抗生素性。

So scientists have been searching for a tool that would quickly allow doctors to diagnose whether a patient has a viral or bacterial infection—and thus know for sure whether to prescribe an antibiotic.
所以，科學家們一直都在研究能讓醫生迅速診斷出病人所患的是細菌性疾病或病毒疾病的方法——這樣醫生就能判定是否應該為醫生開抗生素。

“The new approach that we take rests on the premise that any time we are exposed to something in our environment—whether it’s cigarette smoke, changes in our diet, an infection—our bodies react to that.”
我們所採用新方法基於的假設是，無論我們何時與環境中的事物接觸時——例如香煙煙霧、飲食變化以及疾病——我們的身體都會對此作出反應。

Ephraim Tsalik of Duke University. He and colleagues investigated gene expression—which genes are activated and which remain dormant—in 273 emergency room patients. Some had a bacterial infection, some had a viral one, some had both and some had no communicable disease at all. The researchers also studied 44 healthy adults as a control.
杜克大學的Ephraim Tsalik和同事們調查了273個急診室病人基因表達——基因啟動以及基因休眠狀態。有些病人感染的是細菌疾病，有的則感染的是病毒疾病，有的感染了兩種疾病，同時有的沒患任何感染疾病。研究人員還研究了44名健康成年人作為對照。

“And what we found are some elements, certain genes, that are turned on and off in a certain way that is very characteristic of a response to a viral infection. Other genes that are turned on and off in such a way that is very characteristic of a bacterial infection. And then other genes that are turned on and off in a way that is indicative of no infection at all.”
我們發現一些元素以及某些特定的基因，有時處於啟動狀態，有時處於休眠狀態，這是對病毒疾病反應的特點。而其他基因的狀態則是對細菌性疾病的反應特點。而另外的基因狀態表明其則沒有感染任何病毒。

They then tested these genetic activation signatures against publicly available data sets of patient infections. And the method was 87 percent accurate. The study is in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
然後，他們又利用感染疾病的病患的可用公開資料，檢測了基因啟動信號。這種方法的準確度高達87%。該研究方法發表在《科學轉化醫學》期刊上。

Right now, such gene tests would take perhaps 10 hours to return a diagnosis. And so the researchers are working to develop a diagnostic tool that would cut that turnaround time to just one hour, so that doctors could quickly prescribe antibiotics. But only to patients who would get a benefit, because they have a bacterial and not a viral infection. Which ultimately benefits everyone.
現在，這些基因測試可能需要10個小時才能得出診斷結果。所以，研究人員正在開發診斷工具，將周轉時間減少到1個小時，這樣醫生就能夠迅速的開出抗生素處方。但是，受益的僅僅是病人，因為他們患的是細菌感染，而不是病毒感染。但最終受益的是所有人。

“Decreasing the amount of antibiotics that are used in general is one of the strategies to try and improve the antibacterial-resistance problem.”
減少抗生素使用率，是嘗試改善細菌抗藥性問題的一種方法。