北京霧霾暗藏超級細菌 嚇壞居民
BEIJING — A report that Beijing’s already notorious smog contained bacteria with antibiotic-resistant genes spread through the city last week like pathogens in a pandemic disaster movie.
北京——上週，有一則新聞就像是傳染病災難片中的病原體一樣席捲了北京城，報道稱，在北京已經臭名昭著的霧霾裏，一些細菌具有抗生素耐藥性基因。
“Drug-resistant bacteria make people very afraid,” The Beijing Evening News said in an article reposted by Xinhua, the state news agency, after a scientific study by Swedish researchers drew interest during yet another flare-up of hazardous smog.
在新一輪有害健康的霧霾爆發期間，瑞典研究人員的一項科學研究吸引了人們的興趣。“耐藥菌讓很多人感到非常害怕，”《北京晚報》在官方通訊社新華社轉發的一篇文章中說。
The study, published in October in the journal Microbiome, found antibiotic-resistant genetic material in the smog but no evidence of live bacteria capable of infecting anyone.
這項研究今年10月發表在《微生物》(Microbiome)雜誌上，研究人員在北京的霧霾中發現了含有抗生素耐藥性的遺傳物質，不過沒有證據表明活體細菌可以感染任何人。
That did not make residents of Beijing feel much better, though.
但是，這並沒有讓北京居民的感覺好多少。
The actress Zhang Ziyi perhaps best summed up the feelings among many of Beijing’s 22 million residents by writing on her Weibo account on Saturday that the smog made her want to pick up her 11-month-old daughter and fly away. Ms. Zhang worried that it “made it easier to get sick.”
演員章子怡或許最好地總結了北京2200萬居民中許多人的感受。她上週六在自己的微博賬號上寫道，霧霾令她想要帶着11個月大的女兒上飛機走人。章子怡擔心它讓人“更容易生病”。
By Monday, most Chinese news reports speculating about the threat had been taken offline, replaced by articles quoting an unidentified expert from the city’s Health Department advising that there was nothing to worry about.
至週一，大多數對這種威脅進行猜測的中文新聞報道都已撤掉，替換爲援引市衛計委未指明身份的專家的話所做的報道，後者表示沒什麼可擔心的。
But to cynical Chinese, accustomed to chronic smog and other health hazards including melamine in baby milk powder, the use of recycled oil in restaurants and clenbuterol-fed pigs, the censorship and rebuttals merely signaled that there was, perhaps, something to worry about.
然而對充滿懷疑的中國人來說，審查和反駁僅僅意味着，或許真的有什麼值得擔心的地方。他們習慣了長期存在的霧霾和其他有害健康的事物，包括嬰兒奶粉中的三聚氰胺、餐館裏使用的回收油，以及餵了瘦肉精的豬。
“Speechless!” and “Run, here comes an expert!” were two typical comments circulating online, now deleted.
“無語！”和“快跑，專家來了！”是網上流傳的兩種典型評論，它們現在已遭刪除。
“Hurry and develop a face mask that keeps out harmful bacteria and superbugs,” a user identified as Hengkong chushi wrote in response to an article on Tencent, titled: “Officials Respond to Beijing’s Antibiotic-Resistant Smog Superbugs: No Harm to Humans.”
“趕快研製一種口罩，擋住有害菌，吸進超級菌。”一位名爲“橫空出世”的用戶在騰訊新聞發佈的一篇文章下評論道。這篇文章的標題是《官方迴應北京霧霾現耐藥“超級菌”：對人體無害》。
“Don’t just say ‘no harm,’” another commenter named Sun Rain wrote. “Hurry up and develop new laws and new drugs, to fend off a major peril that could develop.”
“別先說無害，”另一位名爲“太陽雨”的用戶寫道。“趕快研發新法新藥，預防萬一發生大規模危害吧。”
Though fears of airborne bacteria were unfounded, there is a growing health problem of antibiotic resistance. Antibiotics are heavily overprescribed in China, doctors and researchers say.
儘管對空氣中浮游菌的擔憂沒什麼依據，但是由抗生素耐藥性帶來的健康問題卻日益增多。醫生和研究人員表示，在中國抗生素被醫生濫開的情況很嚴重。
The study said “very little if anything about risks for acquiring an infection from breathing urban air,” Joakim Larsson, one of the authors of the study, a professor of environmental pharmacology at the University of Gothenburg’s Sahlgrenska Academy and director of its Center for Antibiotic Resistance Research, wrote in an email responding to a request for comment.
該研究的作者之一、哥德堡大學薩爾格倫斯卡醫學院(University of Gothenburg’s Sahlgrenska Academy)環境藥理學教授兼抗生素耐藥性研究中心(Center for Antibiotic Resistance Research)主任約阿基姆•拉鬆(Joakim Larsson)在迴應時報置評請求的郵件中寫道：這項研究幾乎沒有提及“因在城市裏呼吸空氣而感染的風險”。
In the report, the researchers studied different locations around the world for antibiotic-resistant genes, including the human gut, the skin, wastewater, soil, pharmaceutically polluted sites and, in an apparent innovation, Beijing smog.
在這份報告中，研究人員研究了全世界的不同地點，尋找耐抗生素基因，包括人類的內臟、皮膚、廢水、土壤、遭到藥物污染的地點，還有北京的霧霾——顯然是一種創新的選擇。
In what they described as “a limited set of deeply sequenced air samples from a Beijing smog event,” they identified about 64 types of antibiotic-resistant genes, making Beijing smog one of two environments with “the largest relative abundance and/or diversity” of antibiotic-resistant genes, including genes with resistance to last-resort antibiotics. The other, already known, is environments polluted by pharmaceutical factories.
在被他們描述爲“從北京一個有霧霾的場合獲取的有限的一系列詳盡排序的空氣樣本”中，他們找到了64種耐抗生素基因，這讓北京的霧霾成爲耐抗生素基因“相對丰度或多樣性最大的”兩種環境之一，其中包含對最強大的抗生素有耐藥性的基因。另一種已經爲人知的環境，是被製藥廠污染的地方。
“We have studied DNA from bacteria in the air and found a large variety of genes that can make bacteria resistant to antibiotics, including some of the most powerful antibiotics we have,” Mr. Larsson wrote in the email. “This was a surprising finding to us, and we think it warrants further studies.”
“我們研究了空氣中細菌裏的DNA，發現了許多種可以讓病菌對抗生素產生抵抗力的基因，包括我們擁有的一些力量最強的抗生素，”拉鬆在郵件中寫道。“對我們來說，這是一個意外的發現，我們認爲有必要對它展開進一步的研究。”
Others appeared to agree.
其他人似乎也這麼認爲。
“This is important work that may provide insights into the dissemination of antibiotic resistance not only in Beijing but in other cities as well,” W. Ian Lipkin, director of the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, wrote in an email.
“這是很重要的工作，不僅可以爲北京，也可以爲其他城市的抗生素耐藥性傳播提供啓示，”哥倫比亞大學梅爾曼公共衛生學院(Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health)感染與免疫研究中心主任W•伊恩•李普金(W. Ian Lipkin)在一封郵件中寫道。
“It’s not clear that bacteria in smog are a health threat,” Dr. Lipkin wrote, noting that smog may be the more likely cause of health problems.
“目前還不能確定，霧霾中的細菌是否會對健康構成威脅，”李普金寫道，同時指出霧霾更有可能帶來健康問題。
“What is clear is that the air isn’t clear. Pollution results in damage to airways that increases susceptibility to a wide range of viruses as well as bacteria,” he wrote.
“可以確定的是，那裏的空氣不乾淨。污染給肺的氣道帶來破壞，令人更容易感染種類繁多的病毒和細菌，”他寫道。
“One question not addressed is whether smog stabilizes bacteria in a way that normal air does not,” he added. “Bacteria probably don’t replicate in the air. More likely that they settle somewhere and do, exchanging genetic material in liquid or on surfaces.”
“有一個疑問沒有解決，那就是霧霾是否在某種程度上以一種普通空氣無法實現的方式令細菌保持了穩定，”他接着寫道。“細菌可能不會在空氣中繁殖。它們更有可能在某些地方停下來，進行繁殖，在液體或某些物質表面交換遺傳物質。”
State news outlets are dispensing health advice: To minimize illness during smog attacks, get enough sleep, eat foods that help you expectorate, flush out your nose with saltwater and wash your hands.
官方媒體機構給人們提供的健康建議是：爲在霧霾天氣裏將患病的機率降到最低，應保持充足的睡眠，注意飲食清淡，勤洗手和用鹽水洗鼻。
Heavy smog was predicted again in Beijing for three days, starting on Friday.
預計從週五開始，爲期三天的重度霧霾將再度降臨北京。
