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科学家研制解毒剂抗撒哈拉以南各种毒蛇

Thousands of people in sub-Saharan Africa die or are disabled each year due to poisonous snake bites.  Scientists in Britain are working to develop a serum¹ that will counteract² the venom³ from all sub-Saharan poisonous snake bites.

每年，撒哈拉以南的非洲地区都有成千上万的人被毒蛇咬死。英国的科研人员正在一种血清，这种血清将对撒哈拉以南非洲所有种类的毒蛇的毒液产生解毒作用。

The Puff⁴ adder⁵ is only one of many venomous snakes native to sub-Saharan Africa.

鼓腹巨蝰只是撒哈拉以南非洲地区特有的很多毒蛇的一种。

Dr. Robert Harrison, of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, says every year, puff adders⁶ and the other snakes kill about 32,000 people.

利物浦热带医学院的罗伯特·哈里斯博士说，鼓腹巨蝰和其他蛇类每年要夺去大约3万2千人的生命。

“It's not only that; other people who survive the bite - about 100,000 of them - are living with severe disabled limbs or legs, just really very disabling conditions,” he said.

 “不仅如此，还有那些被蛇咬后大难不死的人，大约有10万人，胳膊或腿落下重大残疾，严重影响生活。”他说。

The current method of producing anti-venom - starting with the venom itself - is time-consuming and costly⁷, and the serum must be refrigerated.  Victims have to be treated multiple times and there are possible side-effects.  With the price of about $140 per single dose, the full treatment may cost more than $500, which makes it unaffordable for most rural Africans.

目前蛇毒解药的生产方式是从毒液本身开始，这需要耗费大量时间和金钱，抗毒血清还必须冷藏。受害人必须接受多次治疗，可能还有副作用。解毒药的价钱每一剂大约是140美元，全程治疗可能要花掉500多美元，超出了很多非洲农民的承受能力。

In addition, because of the way they're produced, current serums⁹ counteract poison from only one species, or a few related ones, so doctors must determine what snake bit the victim.

此外，按照现有的解毒剂制造方法，现有的抗毒血清只能对付一种或几种相近的毒蛇，所以医生们必须确定咬人的究竟是哪种毒蛇。

The anti-venom developed by scientists at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine specifically for Nigeria, proved to be cheap, safe and effective.

经过验证，利物浦热带医学院的科研人员特别为尼日利亚研制的解毒剂不仅价格低廉，而且安全有效。

Harrison says his team is using it as a basis for developing universal anti-venom applicable to all venomous snakes in sub-Saharan Africa.

哈里斯博士说，他的团队正在以这种血清为基础，研制普遍适用于撒哈拉以南非洲地区所有毒蛇的抗毒血清。

“We're going to do that by identifying the proteins that are unique to all the other species," he said. "And taking these unique proteins. i.e. different from the Source Scale Viper¹⁰, the Puff Adder or the Spitting Cobra, and add that to the venoms¹¹ of the original three.”

 “为做到这点，我们将查明所有其它蛇种都具有的特定蛋白质。提取出这些特定蛋白质，也就是与锯鳞蝰、鼓腹巨蝰或射毒眼镜蛇不同的蛋白质，把它加入进最初的那三种蛇毒中去。”他说。

For this purpose the lab is regularly extracting venom from 450 snakes belonging to 21 of the most deadly species of sub-Saharan African snakes.

为此，实验室定期从450条蛇那里提取毒液，这些蛇来自21个物种，全都属于撒哈拉以南非洲地区最致命的毒蛇。

Scientists say the universal anti-venom will be more affordable⁸ than current serums and will be effective much longer.

科研人员说，这种广谱解毒剂价格将低于现有的抗毒血清，药效期也更长。

Target date for the ultimate test - after a year of storage at room temperature - is set for July 2018.

终极试验的日期定在2018年7月。在这之前，这种解毒剂要在室温下储存一年。