VOA标准英语2014--Dysentery Clues Found in WWI Soldier

 

Dysentery Clues Found in WWI Soldier

A World War One British soldier – long after his death – may provide clues to finding new treatments and a possible vaccine¹ for dysentery. The disease continues to be a major problem in developing countries due to unsanitary conditions and conflict.

The Lancet medical journal has published a special World War One edition to mark the 100th anniversary of -- what was once called -- the “war to end all wars.” It reports on research being done to reconstruct the complex genome of the Shigella flexneri bacterium² that causes dysentery.

Dr. Kate Baker³ -- of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute -- is the first author of a new study. She said, “Today, bacillary-dysentery, which is caused by Shigella, still kills thousands of people. Typically these are children in developing nations. They’re in the age group less than five years old.”

It remains⁴ a problem, she said, despite all the scientific advances since the early 1900s.

“Actually, in World War One there was a historical analysis that identified the main factors that caused the outbreaks. Those problems are still problems today. The first two were hygiene⁵ and malnutrition⁶, and the last one was a lack of specific therapies. And we still don’t have a licensed⁷ vaccine for Shigella. Advances in bacteriological diagnosis⁸ were not available in World War One. But now we have them, and we can sequence the genome of this bacterium. But it’s really just showed us how it’s changed over time to evolve against our efforts to control it.”

And a vaccine remains elusive⁹.

Baker said, “It’s difficult to vaccinate¹⁰ for Shigella for a number of reasons. Firstly, there’s not a very good animal model for Shigella. We find it difficult to reproduce disease in any animal model. So, testing a vaccine for Shigella has to be done usually in human volunteers, which, as you can understand, is more difficult.”

Another problem is that Shigella has many similarities with the common e-coli bacterium. It lives in the human gut¹¹. So, vaccinating¹² against Shigella could have adverse¹³ effects on other bacteria that are good for us. There are many strains of

e coli and a few have been in the news for causing sometimes fatal infections.

“The last reason it’s difficult to vaccinate against dysentery,” she said, “it’s a very diverse pathogen. There are over 16 serotypes of Shigella flexneri. So finding a single protein that we can use as a vaccine target is quite difficult.”

Dysentery is still treated as it has been for many years, mostly fluids and bed rest – and the use of antibiotics¹⁵ in severe cases.

Dr. Baker said researchers hope to find clues to dysentery by studying a veteran who died of the disease in France in 1915 – Private Ernest Cable of the Second Battalion¹⁶ of the East Surrey Regiment¹⁷.

“We went back to the First World War intentionally¹⁸ because of the hundred year centenary because we wanted to commemorate¹⁹ the deaths of soldiers during that time – particularly those that were from infectious disease. But actually this is a disease that – as we said – is really important today. And the isolate²⁰ itself is a historical one. And it’s actually the first isolate of Shigella that’s available.”

The isolate is an actual sample of the bacterium taken from Cable’s blood in 1915 and preserved all these years at the National Collection of Type Cultures in England. It basically started the process of storing bacteria and viruses for future research. And this was done long before antibiotics were widely available.

“Penicillin wasn’t discovered until 1928/1929 and it wasn’t used clinically until the 1940s. And so they weren’t really thinking about antibiotic¹⁴ resistance at the time. But the microbiologist, who preserved this sample, really did show great foresight²¹ because actually they said that the war had brought together a great diversity of these different types of Shigella flexneri – this [bacterium] that causes dysentery. And they intentionally preserved it. They said, we’re not going to see this again and we need to preserve this diversity so we can study it,” she said.

Baker added that researchers are gaining insight into why dysentery has been so difficult to tackle for the past 100-years. The sample shows that Shigella has become increasingly drug resistant²². It is difficult to sequence its DNA²³, so no new treatments or vaccines²⁴ will be immediately available. But scientists are looking for parts of the bacterium genome that have remained the same and may offer stable targets for drugs or a vaccine. 

1 vaccine   

n.牛痘苗，疫苗；adj.牛痘的，疫苗的

参考例句：

• The polio vaccine has saved millions of lives.脊髓灰质炎疫苗挽救了数以百万计的生命。
• She takes a vaccine against influenza every fall.她每年秋季接种流感疫苗。

2 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。

3 baker   

n.面包师

参考例句：

• The baker bakes his bread in the bakery.面包师在面包房内烤面包。
• The baker frosted the cake with a mixture of sugar and whites of eggs.面包师在蛋糕上撒了一层白糖和蛋清的混合料。

4 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。

5 hygiene   

n.健康法，卫生学 （a.hygienic）

参考例句：

• Their course of study includes elementary hygiene and medical theory.他们的课程包括基础卫生学和医疗知识。
• He's going to give us a lecture on public hygiene.他要给我们作关于公共卫生方面的报告。

6 malnutrition   

n.营养不良

参考例句：

• In Africa, there are a lot of children suffering from severe malnutrition.在非洲有大批严重营养不良的孩子。
• It is a classic case of malnutrition. 这是营养不良的典型病例。

7 licensed   

adj.得到许可的v.许可，颁发执照(license的过去式和过去分词)

参考例句：

• The new drug has not yet been licensed in the US. 这种新药尚未在美国获得许可。
• Is that gun licensed? 那支枪有持枪执照吗？

8 diagnosis   

n.诊断，诊断结果，调查分析，判断

参考例句：

• His symptoms gave no obvious pointer to a possible diagnosis.他的症状无法作出明确的诊断。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做一次彻底的调查分析。

9 elusive   

adj.难以表达(捉摸)的；令人困惑的；逃避的

参考例句：

• Try to catch the elusive charm of the original in translation.翻译时设法把握住原文中难以捉摸的风韵。
• Interpol have searched all the corners of the earth for the elusive hijackers.国际刑警组织已在世界各地搜查在逃的飞机劫持者。

10 vaccinate   

vt.给…接种疫苗；种牛痘

参考例句：

• Local health officials then can plan the best times to vaccinate people.这样，当地的卫生官员就可以安排最佳时间给人们接种疫苗。
• Doctors vaccinate us so that we do not catch smallpox.医生给我们打预防针使我们不会得天花。

11 gut   

n.[pl.]胆量；内脏；adj.本能的；vt.取出内脏

参考例句：

• It is not always necessary to gut the fish prior to freezing.冷冻鱼之前并不总是需要先把内脏掏空。
• My immediate gut feeling was to refuse.我本能的直接反应是拒绝。

12 vaccinating   

给…接种疫苗( vaccinate的现在分词 )； 注射疫苗，接种疫苗

参考例句：

• At first blush, vaccinating the wolves against rabies seems a simple solution. 乍一看来，为狼群注射防狂犬病疫苗是一种简单的办法。
• Also vaccinating children against misers (measles) has saved many lives. 还有，给儿童进行疫苗接种防止麻疹也挽救了许多生命。

13 adverse   

adj.不利的；有害的；敌对的，不友好的

参考例句：

• He is adverse to going abroad.他反对出国。
• The improper use of medicine could lead to severe adverse reactions.用药不当会产生严重的不良反应。

14 antibiotic   

adj.抗菌的；n.抗生素

参考例句：

• The doctor said that I should take some antibiotic.医生说我应该服些用抗生素。
• Antibiotic can be used against infection.抗菌素可以用来防止感染。

15 antibiotics   

n.（用作复数）抗生素；（用作单数）抗生物质的研究；抗生素，抗菌素( antibiotic的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• the discovery of antibiotics in the 20th century 20世纪抗生素的发现
• The doctor gave me a prescription for antibiotics. 医生给我开了抗生素。

16 battalion   

n.营；部队；大队(的人)

参考例句：

• The town was garrisoned by a battalion.该镇由一营士兵驻守。
• At the end of the drill parade,the battalion fell out.操练之后，队伍解散了。

17 regiment   

n.团，多数，管理；v.组织，编成团，统制

参考例句：

• As he hated army life,he decide to desert his regiment.因为他嫌恶军队生活，所以他决心背弃自己所在的那个团。
• They reformed a division into a regiment.他们将一个师整编成为一个团。

18 intentionally   

ad.故意地，有意地

参考例句：

• I didn't say it intentionally. 我是无心说的。
• The local authority ruled that he had made himself intentionally homeless and was therefore not entitled to be rehoused. 当地政府裁定他是有意居无定所，因此没有资格再获得提供住房。

19 commemorate   

vt.纪念，庆祝

参考例句：

• This building was built to commemorate the Fire of London.这栋大楼是为纪念“伦敦大火”而兴建的。
• We commemorate the founding of our nation with a public holiday.我们放假一日以庆祝国庆。

20 isolate   

vt.使孤立，隔离

参考例句：

• Do not isolate yourself from others.不要把自己孤立起来。
• We should never isolate ourselves from the masses.我们永远不能脱离群众。

21 foresight   

n.先见之明，深谋远虑

参考例句：

• The failure is the result of our lack of foresight.这次失败是由于我们缺乏远虑而造成的。
• It required a statesman's foresight and sagacity to make the decision.作出这个决定需要政治家的远见卓识。

22 resistant   

adj.(to)抵抗的，有抵抗力的

参考例句：

• Many pests are resistant to the insecticide.许多害虫对这种杀虫剂有抵抗力。
• They imposed their government by force on the resistant population.他们以武力把自己的统治强加在持反抗态度的人民头上。

23 DNA   

(缩)deoxyribonucleic acid 脱氧核糖核酸

参考例句：

• DNA is stored in the nucleus of a cell.脱氧核糖核酸储存于细胞的细胞核里。
• Gene mutations are alterations in the DNA code.基因突变是指DNA密码的改变。

24 vaccines   

疫苗，痘苗( vaccine的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His team are at the forefront of scientific research into vaccines. 他的小组处于疫苗科研的最前沿。
• The vaccines were kept cool in refrigerators. 疫苗放在冰箱中冷藏。