文章精读｜抗生素滥用的思考
If you are reading this article, antibioties have probably saved your life-and not once but several times. A rotten tooth. a knee operation, a brush with pneumonia: any number of minor infections that never turned nasty. You may not remember taking the pills. so unremarkable have these one-time wonder drugs become.
Modern medicine relies on antibiotics-not just to cure diseases, but to augment the success of surgery. childbirth and cancer treatments. Yet now health authorities are warning in uncharacteristically apocalyptic terms, that the era of antibiotics is about to end. In some ways, bacteria are continually evolving to resist the drugs. But in the past we've always developed new ones that killed them again.
Not this time. Infections that once succumbed to everyday antibiotics now require last-resort drugs with unpleasant side eflects. Others have become so difticult to treat that they kill some 25,000 Europeans yearly. And some bacteria now resist every known antibiotic.
Regular readers will know why. New Scientist has reported warnings about this for years. We have misused antibioticsappallingly, handing them out to humans like medicinal candy and feeding them to livestock by the tonne, mostly not for health reasons but to make meat cheaper. Now antibiotic-resistant bacteria can be found all over the world-not just in medical facilities, but everywhere from muddy puddles in India to the snows of Antarctica(南极洲).
How did we reach this point without viable successors to todays increasingly ineffectual drugs? The answer lies not in evolution but economics. Over the past 20 years, nearly every major pharmaceutical company has abandoned antibiotics. Companies must make money, and there isn't much in short-term drugs that should be used springly. so researchers have discovered promising candidates. but can't reach into the deep pockets needed to develop them.
This can be fixed. As we report this week, regulatory agencies. worried medical bodies and Big Pharma are finally hatching ways to remedy this market failure. Delinking profits from the volume of drug sold (by adjusting patent rights. say, or offering prizes for innovation )has worked for other drugs, and should work for antibiotics-althongh there may be a worryingly long wait before they reach the market.
One day, though, these will fall to resistance too. Ultimately, we need, evolution-proof cures for bacterial infection: treatments that stop bacteria from causing disease, but don't otherwise inconvenience the little blighters. When resisting drugs confers no selective advantage, drugs will stop breeding resistance.
Researchers have a couple of candidates for such treatmeut. But they fear regulators will drag their feet over such radical approaches That, too, can be fixed. We must not neglect development of the sustainable medicine we need, the way we have neglected simple antibiotic R&D.
If we do. one day another top doctor will be telling us that the drugs no longer work-and there really will be no help on the way.
重点词汇汇总：
rotten tooth.腐烂的牙齿
pneumonia /nuːˈmoʊniə/n. 肺炎
nasty/ˈnæsti/n. 令人不快的人（或物）；可恶；恐怖录像或影片adj. 极差的；恶心的
one-time adj. 以前的；古时的adv. 一度（等于onetime）；从前
so unremarkable have these one-time wonder drugs become.这些曾经的神奇药物变得如此平凡。倒装句
augment /ɔːɡˈment/ n/v 增加；增大
uncharacteristically /,ʌn,kæriktə'ristikli/adv. 不典型地；非同寻常地
apocalyptic /əˌpɑːkəˈlɪptɪk/adj. 描述（历史）大动乱的；预示（未来）大灾变的；像世界末日的；严重的，灾难性的；
succumbed /səˈkʌm/vi. 屈服；死；被压垮
misused antibiotics滥用抗生素
appallingly /ə'pɔ:liŋli/adv. 令人毛骨悚然地；骇人听闻地
livestock /ˈlaɪvstɑːk/n. 牲畜；家畜
tonne /tʌn/n. [计量] 公吨（1，000公斤，等于metric ton）
ton /tʌn/n. 吨；很多，大量
antibiotic-resistant bacteria抗药性细菌
muddy puddles 泥泞的水坑
Antarctica /ænˈtɑːrktɪkə/n. 南极洲
viable successors可行的继任者
pharmaceutical /ˌfɑːrməˈsuːtɪkl/n. 药物adj. 制药（学）的
in short-term drugs 短期的药物
promising candidates.有前途的候选人。
/ˈprɑːmɪsɪŋ/v. 许诺，答应（promise的现在分词形式）adj. 有希望的，有前途的
the deep pockets needed 需要大量资金
can't reach into the deep pockets needed to develop them.无法筹集到开发它们所需的雄厚资金。
regulatory agencies. 管制机构
remedy /ˈremədi/v. 补救，纠正，改进；治疗n. 补救；疗法；解决办法；
profit/ˈprɑːfɪt/n. 利润；利益vt. 有益于
volume /ˈvɑːljuːm,ˈvɑːljəm/n. 量；体积；卷；音量；大量；册adj. 大量的
adjusting patent rights调整专利权
Ultimately /ˈʌltɪmətli/adv. 最后；根本；基本上
blighter /ˈblaɪtər/n. 讨厌的人；讨厌的家伙；笨蛋
drag their feet 拖后腿，不合作
radical approaches激进的方式
sustainable /səˈsteɪnəbl/adj. 可以忍受的；足可支撑的；养得起的；可持续的
百度翻译：
如果你正在读这篇文章，抗生素可能已经救了你的命，不是一次而是几次。一颗烂牙。一次膝盖手术，一次肺部感染：任何一次轻微的感染都不会恶化。你可能不记得吃药了。这些神奇的药物变得如此不起眼。
现代医学不仅依靠抗生素来治疗疾病，而且依靠抗生素来提高手术的成功率。分娩和癌症治疗。然而，现在卫生当局以一种不同寻常的世界末日论警告说，抗生素的时代即将结束。在某些方面，细菌不断进化以抵抗药物。但在过去，我们总是开发出新的，再次杀死他们。
这次不行。曾经依赖于日常抗生素的感染现在需要最后一种药物，药物的副作用令人不快。其他人已经变得如此难以治疗，以至于他们每年杀死约25000名欧洲人。现在有些细菌能抵抗所有已知的抗生素。
普通读者会知道原因的。《新科学家》多年来一直在报道这件事。我们滥用抗生素的情况骇人听闻，把抗生素像药用糖果一样分发给人类，一吨一吨地喂给家畜，主要不是为了健康，而是为了让肉更便宜。现在，抗生素耐药菌不仅在医疗设施中随处可见，从印度的泥泞水坑到南极洲的积雪，随处可见。
如果没有今天日益失效的药物的后继者，我们是如何做到这一点的？答案不在于进化论，而在于经济学。在过去的20年里，几乎所有的大制药公司都放弃了抗生素。公司必须赚钱，而且短期药物中没有多少应该大量使用。所以研究人员发现了有前途的候选人。但无法深入到开发它们所需的资金。
这是可以解决的。正如我们本周报道的，监管机构。忧心忡忡的医疗机构和大型制药公司终于在想方设法弥补这一市场失灵。通过调整专利权使药品销售量中的利润脱钩。比如说，为创新提供奖励）对其他药物有效，而且应该对抗生素有效，尽管抗生素上市可能还有令人担忧的漫长等待。
不过，总有一天，这些也会遭到抵抗。归根结底，我们需要防止细菌感染的进化疗法：能够阻止细菌致病，但不会给小枯萎病菌带来不便的疗法。当抗药性没有选择性优势时，药物将停止产生抗药性。
研究人员有几位候选人可以参加这样的论文。但他们担心，监管者会拖拖拉拉地采取如此激进的做法，以至于也能得到纠正。我们不能忽视我们所需要的可持续医学的发展，我们忽视了简单的抗生素研发。
如果是的话。总有一天，另一位顶级医生会告诉我们，这些药物不再起作用了，而且在治疗过程中也不会有任何帮助。