第一篇：外刊閱讀練習：一種新疫苗讓人類離消滅瘧疾更近了一步

在線學英語 體驗請申請：

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科技。

Malaria,Not swatted yet.消滅瘧疾任重道遠。

A new vaccine is one step towards a distant goal.一種新疫苗讓人類離消滅瘧疾更近了一步。

MAN has vanquished only one disease, smallpox.In 2007 Bill Gates set out to eradicate another, malaria.The World Health Organisation(WHO)was soon rallying its troops to the cause and a flood of money followed.$612m went to research in 2009 alone.This week the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation trumpeted another announcement: results from a phase III trial(the more extensive process of testing drugs in people)of a malaria vaccine called RTS,S.This is the world's most advanced vaccine for malaria and the results, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, were encouraging.到目前為止人類只消滅了天花這一種疾病。2007年，比爾?蓋茨宣布開始著手消滅另一種疾病即瘧疾。世界衛(wèi)生組織迅速召集隊伍致力于這項事業(yè)，并在隨后投入大量資金，2009年僅在研究上就投入了6.12億美元。本周，“比爾和梅琳達?蓋茨基金會”發(fā)表了另一個聲明，內容是世界上對抗瘧疾最先進的疫苗RTS，S的第三試驗階段(在人群中廣泛使用藥物并測量反應)的結果，發(fā)表于《新英格蘭醫(yī)學雜志》上的結果振奮人心。

It is an important step in combating a disease that still kills more than 700,000 people a year and debilitates millions more.But it is also a reminder of how much work remains to be done.每年因瘧疾致死的人有700000人，致殘的有 數(shù)百萬人，這個試驗結果是戰(zhàn)勝這一疾病的重大進步。但是它也提醒人們還有多少任務尚未完成。

Mr Gates is only malaria's latest adversary.The parasite has plagued man for millennia.Chinese texts from 2700BC describe plants to treat its fevers.More recently, in 1955, the WHO embarked on its first malaria-eradication effort.But transmission rates in Africa seemed intractable.After 14 years the WHO gave up.The 在線學英語 體驗請申請：

last time the world tried to eliminate malaria, some scientistslament, the world eliminated malariologists.瘧疾禍害人類千年，蓋茨先生最近一個反抗它的對手。公元前2700年中國的文字資料就記載著一些植物能治療由瘧疾引起的發(fā)燒的。再往離現(xiàn)在近的時間看，世界衛(wèi)生組織在1955年展開首次消滅瘧疾的行動。但是在非洲，遏制瘧疾的傳播率似乎非常棘手。14年之后，世衛(wèi)放棄了。有些科學家慨嘆，上一次世界本來試圖消滅瘧疾，結果被消滅的是瘧疾學家。

The new wave of enthusiasm came with the founding of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership in 1998(to co-ordinate planning), the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative in 1999(with money from the Gates Foundation)and the United Nations' Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in 2002.This culminated in Mr Gates's call to arms four years ago and has helped to lower the number of malaria deaths by 20% over the past decade.隨著1998年“遏制瘧疾伙伴關系”(共同測繪)、1999年“瘧疾疫苗開發(fā)計劃”(資金來自蓋茨基金會)和2002年聯(lián)合國全球治療艾滋病肺結核和瘧疾基金的建立，對抗瘧疾的新一輪熱潮出現(xiàn)了。四年后蓋茨振臂一呼，在十年里瘧疾死亡率降低了20%，推動抗瘧疾的熱潮達到頂峰。

More progress will be difficult.The existing tools of insecticide-treated bed nets and treatment drugs require careful co-ordination and good health systems.Eliminating malaria in a stablecountry is dramatically easier than doing so in a turbulent one.Worryingly, these tools may become less effective.Parasites in South-East Asia, for example, seem to be developingresistance to artemisinin-based treatments.To achieve eradication-or anything close to it-new weapons are needed.要想獲得更多進展非常困難?，F(xiàn)有的帶有殺蟲劑蚊帳和藥物治療要求配合細致和良好的醫(yī)療系統(tǒng)。在一個政局穩(wěn)定的國家消滅瘧疾比在政局動蕩的國家更容易。比如，東南亞的寄生蟲似乎對基于青蒿素的治療起了抗藥性。要想消滅瘧疾——或是向這個目標再邁進一大步—就得發(fā)展新武器。

RTS,S, developed by GlaxoSmithKline(GSK), a British pharmaceutical company, will help.Thevaccine tries to stop one type of malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, before it has a chance to wreak havoc.A mosquito's bite delivers malaria to the body.Travelling swiftly to the liver, the parasites hide, mature and multiply before staging a grand second act in the bloodstream, where they invade red blood cells, multiply again, and invade more cells.RTS,S combines a circumsporozoite protein, which exists on the parasite's surface, with a protein from a hepatitis Bvaccine.Together, these trigger an immune response which can fight off invading parasites before the second act.這個新武器就是由英國制藥公司葛蘭素史克公司(GlaxoSmithKline研制的 在線學英語 體驗請申請：

RTS，S。該疫苗能停止瘧疾寄生蟲惡性瘧原蟲的活性，使它不能為非作歹。蚊子叮一口就會把瘧疾傳到人身上。它傳播敏捷，在寄主身上隱藏起來、成熟、繁殖，然后在血液里進行第二個大的行動，入侵紅細胞后再次繁殖，接著侵占更多細胞。RTS,S把存在于寄生蟲表面的環(huán)子孢子蛋白和肝炎B型疫苗里的一種蛋白結合在一起。它們共同作用引發(fā)一種免疫反應，在第二次活動前就擊退入侵的寄生蟲。

GSK tested the vaccine in 6,000 infants across sub-Saharan Africa.It reduced the risk of clinicalmalaria by 56% and severe malaria by 47%.This efficacy was “on the positive side of what we were expecting,” says Christian Loucq of the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative, GSK's partner on RTS,S.葛蘭素史克公司在撒哈拉以南非洲的6000名嬰兒身上測試了這種疫苗。患臨床瘧疾的風險減少了56%，患嚴重瘧疾的風險減少了47%。葛蘭素史克公司在研制RTS.S的搭檔“瘧疾疫苗開發(fā)計劃”的Christian Loucq說這種效力“是我們曾期待的積極一面”。

However, more is to come.The trial examined children aged 5-17 months.Results for younger babies will follow.Still uncertain is how long the vaccine's protection lasts.The first year that the vaccine might be used would be 2015, and that is if everything goes as planned.Even then, it is unclear how RTS,S might be deployed.Its price is uncertain and its power limited.“We realise that RTS,S is not the ultimate malaria vaccine,” says David Brandling-Bennett of the GatesFoundation.“But it will have some role.The challenge is figuring out what that role is.”

然而，更多的試驗緊隨其后。上面提到的試驗測試對象是5-17個月大的嬰兒。隨后會出爐年齡更小嬰兒的結果。這種疫苗的保護能持續(xù)多久還不清楚。疫苗投入使用可能會從2015年開始，前提是如果一切按計劃進行的話。即使到那時候，還不清楚RTS.S會怎樣投放。價格不定，效力也是有限的?！拔覀冋J識到RTS.S并非是最好的瘧疾疫苗，”蓋茨基金會的大衛(wèi)?布蘭丁-博內特這樣說，“但是它會起到一些作用。我們的挑戰(zhàn)是研究出這種作用是什么?！?/p>

Researchers are already working on the next generation of vaccines.GSK hopes to induce a stronger immune response by combining RTS,S with a vaccine from Crucell, another drug firm.Scientists are also keen to develop vaccines that target different kinds of malaria parasites and in different ways-for example, in mosquitoes' guts.All of this work requires further investment at a time when global health programmes must compete fiercely for cash.Mr Gates has helped to spur progress.Sustaining it is the next challenge.研究者已經開始從事下一代疫苗的開發(fā)。葛蘭素史克公司希望使用RTS，S和另一家制藥公司Crucell的一種疫苗的結合體來引起更強烈的免疫反應。科學家也努力研制針對不同種類瘧疾寄生蟲和不同感染途徑——比如，在蚊子的內臟里——的疫苗。這些工作都需要繼續(xù)投入資金，而現(xiàn)在正是全球醫(yī)療項目必須為 在線學英語 體驗請申請：

資金激烈競爭的時候。蓋茨先生已經為推動研究進步做出貢獻。如何保持這種勢頭是下一個挑戰(zhàn)。

“成千上萬人瘋狂下載。。。

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