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DanielStreicker_2018P-_对抗流行病是如何受到吸血蝠疫苗接种的启发？_
The story that I'm going to tell you today, for me, began back in 2006. 今天我要讲的故事 对于我来说,始于 2006 年。
That was when I first heard about an outbreak of mysterious illness that was happening in the Amazon rainforest of Peru. 那是我第一次听到秘鲁亚马逊雨林 正在上演一场神秘疾病的大爆发。
outbreak:n.(战争的)爆发;(疾病的)发作;vi.爆发; mysterious:adj.神秘的;不可思议的;难解的; Amazon:亚马逊;古希腊女战士; rainforest:n.(热带)雨林;
The people that were getting sick from this illness, they had horrifying symptoms , nightmarish . 因为这个疾病,人们开始感到不适。 他们出现了噩梦般的可怕症状;
horrifying:adj.令人极其震惊的;v.惊吓;使厌恶;(horrify的现在分词) symptoms:n.症状;征候;征兆;(symptom的复数) nightmarish:adj.可怕的;恶梦似的;不愉快的;
They had unbelievable headaches, they couldn't eat or drink. 经历着难以忍受的的头痛, 难以喝水进食。
unbelievable:adj.(非正式)难以置信的;不可信的
Some of them were even hallucinating -- confused and aggressive . 他们有的甚至产生了幻觉—— 变得困惑与激进。
hallucinating:v.(由于生病、吸毒)幻听,幻视,产生幻觉;(hallucinate的现在分词) confused:adj.困惑的; v.使糊涂; (confuse的过去分词和过去式) aggressive:adj.侵略性的;好斗的;有进取心的;有闯劲的;
The most tragic part of all was that many of the victims were children. 最让人心碎的是, 大部分的病患是儿童。
tragic:adj.悲剧的;悲痛的,不幸的;
And of all of those that got sick, none survived. 而且所有这些病患, 无人幸存。
It turned out that what was killing people was a virus, but it wasn't Ebola , it wasn't Zika, it wasn't even some new virus never before seen by science. 最后事实证明是 一种病毒杀害了那些人, 但不是埃博拉,也不是寨卡, 它甚至不是科学家 前所未闻的新病毒。
Ebola:n.埃博拉病毒;
These people were dying of an ancient killer, one that we've known about for centuries. 这些病患的离去 是由一种古老的杀手造成的, 一种在几百年前就知晓的的病毒。
They were dying of rabies . 病患们死于狂犬病。
rabies:n.[内科]狂犬病,恐水病;
And what all of them had in common was that as they slept, they'd all been bitten by the only mammal that lives exclusively on a diet of blood: the vampire bat . 他们的一个共同点是, 在睡觉时,都被一种 仅以嗜血为生的哺乳动物给咬了: 吸血蝠。
mammal:n.哺乳动物; exclusively:adv.唯一地;专有地;排外地; on a diet:节食; vampire bat:n.吸血蝠(产于美洲热带,吸吮其他动物的血);
These sorts of outbreaks that jump from bats into people, they've become more and more common in the last couple of decades. 这类疾病的大爆发 从蝙蝠转移到了人, 在过去几十年中已经变得越发普遍。
outbreaks:n.(战争的)爆发;(疾病的)发作;vi.爆发;
In 2003, it was SARS. 在 2003 年,是非典。
It showed up in Chinese animal markets and spread globally. 它首现于中国动物市场,并肆虐全球。
That virus, like the one from Peru, was eventually traced back to bats, which have probably harbored it, undetected , for centuries. 那病毒,就像是秘鲁的那个一样, 最终被追溯到蝙蝠, 它们可能已经藏匿该病毒 长达几百年,却从未被发现。
eventually:adv.最后,终于; traced:v.发现;追踪;追究;描绘;记述;(trace的过去分词和过去式) harbored:vt.庇护;怀有;n.海港;避难所;vi.居住,生存;入港停泊;躲藏; undetected:adj.未被发现的;未检测到的;
Then, 10 years later, we see Ebola showing up in West Africa, and that surprised just about everybody because, according to the science at the time, 10 年后,我们看到 埃博拉出现在西非, 这震惊了所有人, 因为根据当时的科学表明,
according to:根据,据说;
Ebola wasn't really supposed to be in West Africa. 埃博拉不应该出现在西非。
supposed:adj.误信的;所谓的;v.认为;假设;设想;(suppose的过去分词和过去式)
That ended up causing the largest and most widespread Ebola outbreak in history. 但它却导致了史上 传播最广,规模最大的 埃博拉病毒爆发。
widespread:adj.普遍的,广泛的;分布广的;
So there's a disturbing trend here, right? 这是一个令人不安的趋势,对吧？
disturbing:adj.引起烦恼的;令人不安的;v.打扰;干扰;搅乱;使不安;(disturb的现在分词) trend:n.趋势;动向;趋向;动态;v.走向;趋向;
Deadly viruses are appearing in places where we can't really expect them, and as a global health community , we're caught on our heels . 致命的病毒正出现于 我们无法真正预期的地方。 而作为全球健康社区, 我们一直在忙于应对。
Deadly:adj.致命的;非常的;死一般的;adv.非常;如死一般地; global:adj.全球的;总体的;球形的; community:n.社区;[生态]群落;共同体;团体; heels:n.高跟鞋(heel的复数);脚踝;残余料;v.紧跟;给(鞋等)装跟(heel的三单形式);
We're constantly chasing after the next viral emergency in this perpetual cycle, always trying to extinguish epidemics after they've already started. 我们一直在追逐下一个 病毒带来的紧急情况, 总是在疫情已经开始蔓延后, 努力消灭它们。
constantly:adv.不断地;时常地; viral:adj.滤过性毒菌引起的;滤过性毒菌的; emergency:n.紧急情况;突发事件;非常时刻;adj.紧急的;备用的; perpetual:adj.永久的;不断的;四季开花的;无期限的; extinguish:vt.熄灭;压制;偿清; epidemics:n.流行病;蔓延(epidemic的复数);时疫;
So with new diseases appearing every year, now is really the time that we need to start thinking about what we can do about it. 随着每年新疾病的出现, 现在, 真的是需要开始思考 我们能为之做什么的时候了。
diseases:n.[医]病(disease的复数);[医]疾病;[植保]病害;疾病种类;
If we just wait for the next Ebola to happen, we might not be so lucky next time. 如果我们仅仅等着 下一个埃博拉的出现, 那时,我们可能就不会这么幸运了。
We might face a different virus, one that's more deadly, one that spreads better among people, or maybe one that just completely outwits our vaccines , leaving us defenseless . 我们可能面对着一个不同的病毒, 一个更加致命的病毒, 一个人类间传播能力更强的病毒, 或可能是效力完全胜于疫苗, 让我们束手无策的病毒。
outwits:v.哄骗;瞒住;给…上当;机智上胜过;(outwits是outwit的第三人称单数); vaccines:n.[药][计]疫苗; defenseless:adj.无防备的;
So can we anticipate pandemics ? 那么我们可以预测疾病大流行吗？
anticipate:v.预期,期望;占先,抢先;提前使用; pandemics:大流行;流行病;
Can we stop them? 我们能够阻止它们吗？
Those are really hard questions to answer, and the reason is that the pandemics -- the ones that spread globally, the ones that we really want to anticipate -- they're actually really rare events. 这些是非常难以回答的问题, 而其中的原因是大流行—— 那些传播于全球的流行病, 那些我们非常想要去 预测的流行病—— 它们实际上是罕见事件。
And for us as a species that is a good thing -- that's why we're all here. 对于我们,作为一个物种, 是一件好事—— 这就是为何我们都在这里。
species:n.[生物]物种;种类;
But from a scientific standpoint , it's a little bit of a problem. 但从科学角度来看, 这是有一些问题的。
scientific:adj.科学的,系统的; standpoint:n.立场;观点; a little bit of a:一点点了;
That's because if something happens just once or twice, that's really not enough to find any patterns. 因为一件事如果只发生一两次, 那就真的不足以发现任何规律,
Patterns that could tell us when or where the next pandemic might strike. 可以告诉我们何时或何地 下一场流行病毒可能发生的规律。
So what do we do? 那么我们该怎么做？
Well, I think one of the solutions we may have is to study some viruses that routinely jump from wild animals into people, or into our pets, or our livestock , even if they're not the same viruses that we think are going to cause pandemics. 我认为其中一个解决方案就是, 我们可能可以研究一些 常规性从野生动物 传播到人身上的病毒, 或到我们宠物、牲畜的病毒, 即使它们和我们认为 造成大流行的病毒不同,
routinely:adv.例行公事地;老一套地; livestock:n.家畜;牲畜;
If we can use those everyday killer viruses to work out some of the patterns of what drives that initial , crucial jump from one species to the next, and, potentially , how we might stop it, then we're going to end up better prepared 如果我们可以利用那些日常杀手病毒 来找到一些规律, 例如是什么驱动了最初的 病毒的物种间转移, 以及,我们可能如何阻止转移的发生, 这样为应对未来 更小概率的物种间转移,
initial:adj.最初的; n.(名字的)首字母; v.用姓名的首字母作标记(或签名)于; crucial:adj.重要的;决定性的;定局的;决断的; potentially:adv.可能地,潜在地;
for those viruses that jump between species more rarely but pose a greater threat of pandemics. 但对大流行造成更大威胁的病毒, 我们将做出更加充分的准备。
rarely:adv.很少地;难得;罕有地;
Now, rabies, as terrible as it is, turns out to be a pretty nice virus in this case. 然而如此可怕的狂犬病毒, 事实证明已经是比较“友善”的了。
You see, rabies is a scary, deadly virus. 大家都知道,狂犬病毒多么 令人闻声色变,它是致命的,
It has 100 percent fatality . 且具有百分百的死亡率。
fatality:n.死亡;宿命;致命性;不幸;灾祸;
That means if you get infected with rabies and you don't get treated early, there's nothing that can be done. 这意味着如果你被它感染, 而且没尽早接受治疗, 那你就会走投无路。
infected:adj.带菌的; v.传染; (infect的过去分词和过去式) treated:v.以…态度对待;把…看作;(treat的过去分词和过去式)
There is no cure. 无药可治,
You will die. 你必死无疑。
And rabies is not just a problem of the past either. 此外,狂犬病毒不仅是 一个历史问题。
Even today, rabies still kills 50 to 60,000 people every year. 甚至在今天,该病毒每年 仍能杀死 5 - 6 万人。
Just put that number in some perspective . 换个角度看看这个数字。
perspective:n.观点;远景;透视图;adj.透视的;
Imagine the whole West African Ebola outbreak -- about two-and-a-half years; you condense all the people that died in that outbreak into just a single year. 想象整个西非的 埃博拉疫情爆发—— 持续了大约 2 年至 2 年半, 把所有在疫情爆发中死亡的人数 压缩到一年。
condense:vi.浓缩;凝结;vt.使浓缩;使压缩;
That's pretty bad. 这听起来蛮糟糕的。
But then, you multiply it by four, and that's what happens with rabies every single year. 但你再把这数字乘以 4, 就是每一年狂犬病疫情的情况。
multiply:vt.乘; vi.乘; v.多样地; adj.多层的;
So what sets rabies apart from a virus like Ebola is that when people get it, they tend not to spread it onward . 让狂犬病毒 有别于埃博拉病毒的是, 当人们被病毒感染时, 往往不会继续传播给其他人。
onward:adj.向前的;前进的;adv.向前;在前面;
That means that every single time a person gets rabies, it's because they were bitten by a rabid animal, and usually, that's a dog or a bat. 这意味着每次当一个人 接触到狂犬病病毒, 都是因为他们被 携带狂犬病的动物咬了, 通常是狗或蝙蝠。
rabid:adj.激烈的;狂暴的;偏激的;患狂犬病的;
But it also means that those jumps between species, which are so important to understand, but so rare for most viruses, for rabies, they're actually happening by the thousands. 但这也意味着我们 对于那些物种间传播的病毒 的理解认知是如此重要, 但对大部分病毒来说却又如此罕见。 然而对狂犬病毒来说, 物种间传播是非常频繁的。
So in a way, rabies is almost like the fruit fly or the lab mouse of deadly viruses. 所以从某种程度上, 狂犬病毒就好比果蝇, 或是携带致命病毒的实验室老鼠。
fruit fly:n.果蝇;实蝇;
This is a virus that we can use and study to find patterns and potentially test out new solutions. 这是一种我们可以用来研究 以找寻规律的病毒, 有可能帮助我们找到新的解决方案。
And so, when I first heard about that outbreak of rabies in the Peruvian Amazon, it struck me as something potentially powerful because this was a virus that was jumping from bats into other animals often enough that we might be able to anticipate it ... 所以,当我第一次听到秘鲁亚马逊的 狂犬病大爆发, 我惊讶于这潜在的、 如此强大的威力, 因为这是个能够 从蝙蝠转移到其它动物身上的病毒, 通常我们可能足以预见它……
Maybe even stop it. 甚至可能阻止它。
So as a first-year graduate student with a vague memory of my high school Spanish class, 因此,作为一个研一学生, 带着自己模糊的高中西语课记忆,
vague:adj.模糊的;含糊的;不明确的;暧昧的;
I jumped onto a plane and flew off to Peru, looking for vampire bats. 我跳上了飞机,飞往秘鲁, 寻找吸血蝠。
And the first couple of years of this project were really tough. 这个项目的最初几年真的很艰难。
I had no shortage of ambitious plans to rid Latin America of rabies, but at the same time , there seemed to be an equally endless supply of mudslides and flat tires, power outages , stomach bugs all stopping me. 我不乏消灭拉丁美洲 狂犬病毒的雄心壮志, 但与此同时, 我还不断遇到 无止尽的泥石流和爆胎, 停电以及胃病, 都在阻碍我的进程。
shortage:n.短缺;不足;缺少; ambitious:adj.野心勃勃的;有雄心的;热望的;炫耀的; Latin America:n.拉丁美洲(以西班牙语或葡萄牙语为主要语言的美洲地区); at the same time:同时;另一方面;与此同时; endless:adj.无止境的;连续的;环状的;漫无目的的; mudslides:泥石流; outages:n.储运损耗;中断供应;运行中断; bugs:n.缺陷;虫子;窃听器;(bug的复数)v.窃听;使烦恼;(bug的第三人称单数)
But that was kind of par for the course , working in South America , and to me, it was part of the adventure . 但这在南美洲 都是意料之中的, 与我而言,也是探险的一部分。
par for the course:常有的事;意料之中的事; South America:n.南美洲; adventure:n.冒险;奇遇;经历;冒险游戏;v.探险;以…冒险;大胆进行;闯;
But what kept me going was the knowledge that for the first time, the work that I was doing might actually have some real impact on people's lives in the short term. 让我坚持下去的 是第一次知道 自己手头的工作也许确实能
impact:n.影响;效果;碰撞;冲击力;v.挤入,压紧;撞击;对…产生影响;
And that struck me the most when we actually went out to the Amazon and were trying to catch vampire bats. 令我最震惊的是, 我们真正步入亚马逊 并亲自尝试着抓捕吸血蝠。
You see, all we had to do was show up at a village and ask around. 我们要做的就是 去往村庄,四处询问。
'"Who's been getting bitten by a bat lately?" “谁最近被蝙蝠咬了？”
And people raised their hands, because in these communities , getting bitten by a bat is an everyday occurrence , happens every day. 之后人们举起他们的手, 因为在这个社区, 被蝙蝠咬是家常便饭, 每天都在发生。
communities:n.社区;社会;团体;共有(community的复数) occurrence:n.发生;出现;存在;发生的事情;
And so all we had to do was go to the right house, open up a net and show up at night, and wait until the bats tried to fly in and feed on human blood. 所以我们要做的是去正确的家庭, 布网, 夜间拜访, 并等待蝙蝠前来准备吸人血。
So to me, seeing a child with a bite wound on his head or blood stains on his sheets , that was more than enough motivation to get past whatever logistical or physical headache 对我而言,看着一个孩子 头被咬伤,或他床单上的血迹, 就是能让我忘却任何路途困难 与身体不适的动力,继续工作。
wound:n.创伤,伤口;v.使受伤;受伤,伤害; stains:n.污点(stain的复数)[试剂][生物]染色剂;v.着色(stain的三单形式);沾染; sheets:n.床单;被单;薄片,薄板;(sheet的复数) motivation:n.动机;积极性;推动; logistical:adj.后勤方面的;运筹的,逻辑的; physical:adj.[物]物理的;身体的;物质的;符合自然法则的;n.体格检查;
I happened to be feeling on that day. 那天碰巧是这样。
Since we were working all night long, though, 尽管我们经常整夜都在工作,
I had plenty of time to think about how I might actually solve this problem, and it stood out to me that there were two burning questions. 我仍然会抽时间思考 要如何解决这个问题, 然而在我看来, 尚有两个亟待解决的问题。
The first was that we know that people are bitten all the time, but rabies outbreaks aren't happening all the time -- every couple of years, maybe even every decade, you get a rabies outbreak. 第一个是我们知道人们总是被咬, 但是狂犬病并非总是爆发—— 每隔几年,甚至可能每隔十年, 爆发一次。
So if we could somehow anticipate when and where the next outbreak would be, that would be a real opportunity, meaning we could vaccinate people ahead of time, before anybody starts dying. 因此,如果我们能够 预测下一次爆发的时间地点, 那将会是一个极佳的机会, 意味着我们可以在 任何人受到疫情折磨前, 给大家注射疫苗。
somehow:adv.以某种方法;莫名其妙地; vaccinate:vi.接种疫苗;vt.给…注射疫苗;n.被接种牛痘者;
But the other side of that coin is that vaccination is really just a Band-Aid . 但是同时, 疫苗是否只能充当一张创可贴,
vaccination:n.接种疫苗;种痘; Band-Aid:n.创可贴;adj.补缀的;
It's kind of a strategy of damage control . 作为一种控制伤害的策略。
strategy:n.策略;行动计划;部署;战略; damage control:采取措施将造成的损害降到最低;
Of course it's lifesaving and important and we have to do it, but at the end of the day, no matter how many cows, how many people we vaccinate, we're still going to have exactly the same amount of rabies up there in the bats. 当然,这能挽救生命, 也很重要,我们要做这件事, 但归根结底, 不论我们给多少头牛、 多少个人接种疫苗, 蝙蝠身上始终 将携带同样数量的狂犬病毒。
lifesaving:adj.救命的;救生用的;n.救生;
The actual risk of getting bitten hasn't changed at all. 被蝙蝠咬伤的实际风险 并没有任何改变。
So my second question was this: 所以,我的第二个问题就是:
Could we somehow cut the virus off at its source ? 我们能否从源头消灭这些病毒？
source:n.来源;水源;原始资料;
If we could somehow reduce the amount of rabies in the bats themselves, then that would be a real game changer . 如果我们多少能降低 蝙蝠自身携带狂犬病毒的数量, 这将会真正逆转现状。
changer:n.转换开关装置;改变者(change的名词形式);
We'd been talking about shifting from a strategy of damage control to one based on prevention . 我们一直在说 要从伤害控制转变成预防的策略。
shifting:adj.不断移动的;流动的;v.转移;赶快;快速移动;变换;(shift的现在分词) prevention:n.预防;阻止;妨碍;
So, how do we begin to do that? 那么,我们如何开始做这件事？
Well, the first thing we needed to understand was how this virus actually works in its natural host -- in the bats. 第一件我们需要了解 这个病毒是如何 在它的天然宿主—— 即蝙蝠体内生存的。
And that is a tall order for any infectious disease, particularly one in a reclusive species like bats, but we had to start somewhere. 这对于任何传染病来说 都是一项艰巨的任务, 尤其是对于蝙蝠这样的隐居物种, 但我们必须找到入手点。
a tall order:苛求;艰巨的任务;过高要求; infectious:adj.传染的;传染性的;易传染的; particularly:adv.特别地,独特地;详细地,具体地;明确地,细致地; reclusive:adj.隐居的;隐遁的;
So the way we started was looking at some historical data. 于是我们最先查看了一些历史数据:
historical:adj.历史的;史学的;基于史实的;
When and where had these outbreaks happened in the past? 这些大爆发曾经发生在何时何地？
And it became clear that rabies was a virus that just had to be on the move . 我们也逐渐明确了 狂犬病毒必须要 不断转移宿主,
on the move:在活动中,在进行中;四处奔波;
It couldn't sit still. 它们无法保持不动。
The virus might circulate in one area for a year, maybe two, but unless it found a new group of bats to infect somewhere else, it was pretty much bound to go extinct . 病毒可能在一个地区 传播一年,或两年, 除非它能找到新蝙蝠群, 传播到别的地方, 否则就会自然灭绝。
circulate:v.循环;传播;流传;传阅; bound:n.跳跃:v.跳跃着跑:形成…的边界(或界限)adj.一定会:很可能会: extinct:adj.灭绝的,绝种的;熄灭的;vt.使熄灭;
So with that, we solved one key part of the rabies transmission challenge. 根据这点,我们解决了 一个狂犬病毒传播挑战的关键部分。
transmission:n.传输;传染;播送;发射;广播;传动装置;
We knew we were dealing with a virus on the move, but we still couldn't say where it was going. 我们知道我们在与 不断转移的病毒打交道, 但我们仍旧不知道 它会传播到哪里去。
Essentially , what I wanted was more of a Google Maps-style prediction , which is, "What's the destination of the virus? 我想要一个类似 谷歌地图的预测图, 能告诉我 “病毒的目的地在哪里？
Essentially:adv.本质上;本来; Google:谷歌;谷歌搜索引擎; prediction:n.预报;预言;
What's the route it's going to take to get there? 它们去目的地的路径是什么？
route:n.路线;路途;固定线路;途径;v.按某路线发送;
How fast will it move?" 速度有多快？”
To do that, I turned to the genomes of rabies. 于是我转去研究狂犬病毒基因组。
genomes:n.[遗]基因组(genome复数);
You see, rabies, like many other viruses, has a tiny little genome, but one that evolves really, really quickly. 狂犬病毒和许多其他病毒一样, 有一个很小的基因组, 但是它进化得非常非常快。
evolves:v.进化,进展(evolve的第三人称单数形式);
So quickly that by the time the virus has moved from one point to the next, it's going to have picked up a couple of new mutations . 快到在病毒从一个地点 转移到另一个的时候, 它就会经历几次新突变。
mutations:n.[遗]突变;变化;转变(mutation的复数形式);
And so all we have to do is kind of connect the dots across an evolutionary tree, and that's going to tell us where the virus has been in the past and how it spread across the landscape . 因此,我们要做的 就是连结那些进化树上的点, 这会告诉我们 这个病毒曾经去过哪里, 又是如何传播的。
evolutionary:adj.进化的;发展的;渐进的; landscape:n.景观;乡村风景画;(文件的)横向打印格式;v.对…做景观美化;美化…的环境;
So, I went out and I collected cow brains, because that's where you get rabies viruses. 所以我出门收集了牛脑, 因为这是你能找到狂犬病毒的地方。
And from genome sequences that we got from the viruses in those cow brains, 从牛脑病毒中获取的基因序列中,
sequences:n.[数][计]序列,顺序;继起的事(sequence的复数形式);
I was able to work out that this is a virus that spreads between 10 and 20 miles each year. 我发现 这是一个每年能够 传播 10-20 英里的病毒。
OK, so that means we do now have the speed limit of the virus, but still missing that other key part of where is it going in the first place . 所以这说明我们 现在有了病毒的传播限速, 但依旧缺失其他关键部分, 例如它们首先向什么地方传播。
speed limit:n.(道路的)最高车速限制; in the first place:首先;起初;
For that, I needed to think a little bit more like a bat, because rabies is a virus -- it doesn't move by itself, it has to be moved around by its bat host, so I needed to think about how far to fly and how often to fly. 要解决这个问题, 我需要用蝙蝠的思维来思考, 因为狂犬病毒是一个病毒—— 不依靠自身传播, 必须围绕在蝙蝠宿主身边, 所以我需要思考这个病毒 传播的距离和频率。
My imagination didn't get me all that far with this and neither did little digital trackers that we first tried putting on bats. 我的想象力不够回答这些问题, 我们第一次尝试安装在蝙蝠上的 小型数字追踪器也没有答案。
imagination:n.想象;想象力;创造力;想象的事物; digital:adj.数字的;手指的;n.数字;键; trackers:n.追踪者(tracker的复数形式);
We just couldn't get the information we needed. 我们就是无法获取所需信息。
So instead, we turned to the mating patterns of bats. 于是,我们转向蝙蝠 交配模式的研究。
mating:n.交尾;交配;v.交配;交尾;使交配;(mate的现在分词)
We could look at certain parts of the bat genome, and they were telling us that some groups of bats were mating with each other and others were more isolated . 我们观察蝙蝠基因组的特定片段, 知道了有些蝙蝠群会相互交配, 但是有的比较孤立。
isolated:adj.偏远的; v.隔离,孤立,脱离;
And the virus was basically following the trail laid out by the bat genomes. 狂犬病毒基本上遵循了 蝙蝠基因组的踪迹。
basically:adv.主要地,基本上; trail:v.(被)拖,拉;疲惫地走,磨蹭;落后,失败;n.痕迹;踪迹;小路;路线;
Yet one of those trails stood out as being a little bit surprising -- hard to believe. 但其中的一个踪迹与众不同, 令人惊讶且难以置信。
trails:n.山径;踪迹(trail的复数)vt.拖尾(trail的第三人称单数);
That was one that seemed to cross straight over the Peruvian Andes , crossing from the Amazon to the Pacific coast, and that was kind of hard to believe, as I said , 那个踪迹似乎径直 跨越了秘鲁安第斯山脉, 从亚马逊穿越到太平洋海岸, 这就是我说的 难以置信,
Andes:n.安第斯山脉; as I said:正如我所说的
because the Andes are really tall -- about 22,000 feet, and that's way too high for a vampire to fly. 是吸血蝠几乎不可能飞越的高度。
Yet -- 但是——
(Laughter) （笑声）
when we looked more closely, we saw, in the northern part of Peru, a network of valley systems that was not quite too tall for the bats on either side to be mating with each other. 当我们仔细观察后, 我们看到对于河岸两边 想要互相交配的蝙蝠来说, 秘鲁北部的一系列 峡谷流域海拔还不算太高。
And we looked a little bit more closely -- sure enough, there's rabies spreading through those valleys, just about 10 miles each year. 我们又观察得更加仔细了一点—— 没错,所有那些流域 都有狂犬病毒的传播, 每年 10 英里。
Basically, exactly as our evolutionary models had predicated it would be. 基本上正如我们 的进化模型预测的那样。
predicated:adj.断言的,断定的;v.断言;断定(predicate的过去式);
What I didn't tell you is that that's actually kind of an important thing because rabies had never been seen before on the western slopes of the Andes, or on the whole Pacific coast of South America, 我没有告诉你们的 是这件事的重要性, 因为狂犬病从未在 安第斯山脉的西坡出现, 或是整个南非的太平洋海岸,
slopes:n.倾斜,斜坡;[数]斜率;山坡翱(slope的复数形式); on the whole:基本上,大体上;就全体而论;
so we were actually witnessing , in real time , a historical first invasion into a pretty big part of South America, which raises the key question: "What are we going to do about that?" 所以我们实际上在亲眼目睹 一场实时的,历史首现的入侵, 对相当大面积南美洲的入侵。 这就引出了一个关键问题: “我们应该做什么来应对入侵？”
witnessing:v.当场看到,目击;是发生…的地点;见证;(witness的现在分词) real time:adj.实时的;接到指示立即执行的; invasion:n.武装入侵;侵略;侵犯;涌入;干预;
Well, the obvious short-term thing we can do is tell people: you need to vaccinate yourselves, vaccinate your animals; rabies is coming. 我们在短期明确可以做的 就是告诉大家: 你需要给自己接种疫苗, 以及你的宠物也是, 狂犬病毒马上要传播到这里了。
obvious:adj.明显的;显著的;平淡无奇的; short-term:adj.短期的;
But in the longer term, it would be even more powerful if we could use that new information to stop the virus from arriving altogether. 但是长远来说, 如果能够利用新的研究成果 来阻止病毒入侵, 这会使我们变得更加强大。
Of course, we can't just tell bats, "Don't fly today," 当然,我们不能和蝙蝠说: “今天不要飞。”
but maybe we could stop the virus from hitching a ride along with the bat. 但我们或许可以阻止病毒 在蝙蝠身上的搭便车行为。
hitching:v.钩住,搭便车(hitch的ing形式);n.系留;
And that brings us to the key lesson that we have learned from rabies-management programs all around the world, whether it's dogs, foxes, skunks , raccoons , 我们从全球狂犬病毒管理项目中 所学到的最重要的一堂课, 就是不论狗、狐狸、 臭鼬还是浣熊,
skunks:n.臭鼬(skunk的复数形式); raccoons:n.浣熊(raccoon的复数形式);
North America , Africa, Europe. 在北美,非洲还是欧洲,
North America:n.北美洲;
It's that vaccinating the animal source is the only thing that stops rabies. 动物源的疫苗接种都是 唯一能够消除狂犬病毒的方法。
vaccinating:vi.接种疫苗;vt.给…注射疫苗;n.被接种牛痘者;
So, can we vaccinate bats? 那么,我们能给蝙蝠接种疫苗吗？
You hear about vaccinating dogs and cats all the time, but you don't hear too much about vaccinating bats. 你们都听说过给猫狗接种疫苗, 但是肯定没怎么听过 给蝙蝠接种疫苗。
It might sound like a crazy question, but the good news is that we actually already have edible rabies vaccines that are specially designed for bats. 这问题可能听起来有点疯狂, 但有一个好消息, 我们已经有专门为蝙蝠设计的 可食用狂犬病疫苗。
edible:adj.可食用的;n.食品;食物;
And what's even better is that these vaccines can actually spread from bat to bat. 更妙的是, 这些疫苗可以阻止 病毒在蝙蝠间传播。
All you have to do is smear it on one and let the bats' habit of grooming each other take care of the rest of the work for you. 你所要做的就是 将疫苗涂抹在一只蝙蝠上, 之后让它们 相互梳理绒毛的习惯 帮助你完成剩下的工作。
smear:v.弄脏;诽谤;胡乱涂抹;n.污迹;污点;丑化; grooming:n.打扮;装束;刷洗;梳毛;v.擦洗;理毛;使作好准备;培养;(groom的现在分词)
So that means, at the very least, we don't have to be out there vaccinating millions of bats one by one with tiny little syringes . 所以这意味着,至少 我们不需要用小小的注射器 去外面把上百万只蝙蝠 一只只抓来接种疫苗。
one by one:一个接一个; syringes:n.(皮下)注射器; v.用注射器清洗(耳朵); (syringe的第三人称单数和复数)
(Laughter) （笑声）
But just because we have that tool doesn't mean we know how to use it. 但工具的存在并不代表 我们知道如何使用它。
Now we have a whole laundry list of questions. 现在我们有一箩筐的问题。
laundry list:n.一长串名单;清单;
How many bats do we need to vaccinate? 我们需要给多少蝙蝠接种疫苗？
What time of the year do we need to be vaccinating? 一年中的什么时候, 我们需要开始接种？
How many times a year do we need to be vaccinating? 一年总共需要接种几次？
All of these are questions that are really fundamental to rolling out any sort of vaccination campaign, but they're questions that we can't answer in the laboratory . 所有的这些问题都是 开展任何预防接种运动 最基本的问题, 但这些恰恰是我们在实验室中 无法解答的问题。
fundamental:n.基础; adj.十分重大的; laboratory:n.实验室,研究室;
So instead, we're taking a slightly more colorful approach . 于是,我们正在尝试 一个稍许更加有趣的方法。
slightly:adv.些微地,轻微地;纤细地; approach:n.方法;路径;v.接近;建议;着手处理;
We're using real wild bats, but fake vaccines. 使用真正的野生蝙蝠, 但接种的是假疫苗。
fake:n.假货;骗子;假动作;v.捏造;假装…的样子;adj.伪造的;
We use edible gels that make bat hair glow and UV powders that spread between bats when they bump into each other, and that's letting us study how well a real vaccine might spread in these wild colonies of bats. 我们用可食用凝胶使蝙蝠毛发发光, 以及蝙蝠在彼此碰撞时 能得以传播的紫外光粉末, 这使我们能够研究真正的疫苗
gels:n.凝胶剂;定型发胶(gel的复数);v.形成胶体(gel的第三人称单数); glow:n.喜悦; v.发热; powders:n.[材]粉末;[药]散剂(powder的复数);v.磨成粉;洒粉于(powder的三单形式); bump:n.肿块,隆起物;撞击;v.碰撞,撞击;颠簸而行;adv.突然地,猛烈地;
We're still in the earliest phases of this work, but our results so far are incredibly encouraging. 我们依旧处于这个项目的初期阶段, 可至今我们的成果非常鼓舞人心。
phases:n.阶段,时期(phase的复数形式);v.逐步实行(phase的三单形式); incredibly:adv.难以置信地;非常地;
They're suggesting that using the vaccines that we already have, we could potentially drastically reduce the size of rabies outbreaks. 结果表明,使用我们已经拥有的疫苗, 很有可能可以极大地 缩减狂犬病爆发的规模。
drastically:adv.彻底地;激烈地;
And that matters, because as you remember, rabies is a virus that always has to be on the move, and so every time we reduce the size of an outbreak, we're also reducing the chance that the virus makes it onto the next colony . 这很重要,因为就如刚才所说, 狂犬病毒是一种 经常需要变换宿主的病毒, 所以我们每一次对爆发规模的削弱, 都在降低 病毒入侵下一个种群的可能性,
colony:n.殖民地;移民队;
We're breaking a link in the chain of transmission. 都在打破传播链的一个环节。
And so every time we do that, we're bringing the virus one step closer to extinction . 因此每一次, 我们都让该病毒距离灭亡更进一步。
extinction:n.绝种;
And so the thought, for me, of a world in the not-too-distant future where we're actually talking about getting rid of rabies altogether, that is incredibly encouraging and exciting. 不远的将来,世界将会 永远免于任何狂犬病毒侵扰的想法, 是极其鼓舞人心且令人激动的。
So let me return to the original question. 那么让我回到最初的问题。
original:n.原件;原作;原物;原型;adj.原始的;最初的;独创的;新颖的;
Can we prevent pandemics? 我们能够预防疾病大流行吗？
Well, there is no silver-bullet solution to this problem, but my experiences with rabies have left me pretty optimistic about it. 这个问题没有彻底 且完美的解决方案, 但是我对于狂犬病毒的经验 让我对这个问题持乐观态度。
solution:n.解决方案;溶液;溶解;解答; optimistic:adj.乐观的;乐观主义的;
I think we're not too far from a future where we're going to have genomics to forecast outbreaks and we're going to have clever new technologies , like edible, self-spreading vaccines, that can get rid of these viruses at their source before they have a chance to jump into people. 我认为我们离那个未来不是太远, 一个利用基因组学预测疫情爆发 和拥有智能新技术的未来, 例如可食用,可自行传播的疫苗, 能够在这些病毒有机会传播到人类前 从根源消灭它们的疫苗。
genomics:n.基因组学;基因体学; forecast:n.预测;预报;v.预测;预报; technologies:n.技术;科技(technology的复数);
So when it comes to fighting pandemics, the holy grail is just to get one step ahead. 所以当说到对抗疾病大流行, 我们离胜利也就一步之遥。
holy grail:na.圣杯;
And if you ask me, 如果你问我,
I think one of the ways that we can do that is using some of the problems that we already have now, like rabies -- sort of the way an astronaut might use a flight simulator , figuring out what works and what doesn't, and building up our tool set so that when the stakes are high, we're not flying blind. 我认为其中一个 能实现这一目标的方法就是, 利用一些现在我们 已经知道的问题, 比如狂犬病毒—— 好比宇航员会用飞行模拟器, 来摸索什么能起作用,而什么不行, 并且构建我们自己的工具集, 这样当我们面临危难时, 我们不会盲目飞行。
flight simulator:n.飞行模拟器;飞行练习器; stakes:n.桩; v.以…打赌,拿…冒险;
Thank you. 谢谢。
(Applause) （掌声）