LymeHelpsSpreadOtherTickInfections.doc

听力课堂,开放式英语学习平台！www.TingC 学英语，练听力，上听力课堂。【免费英语听力下载】 -  PAGE 2 - Lyme Helps Spread Other Tick Infections 莱姆病会促进其他蜱虫传染病的传播 Lyme disease may be the most well known illness spread by ticks. But its far from the only one. The most common vector for Lyme is the deer tick, and it spreads five other known pathogens. One of those pathogens is what’s called the Babesia parasite. It infects red blood cells, like malaria, causing the sometimes-fatal disease babesiosis. 莱姆病可能是由蜱虫传播的最广为人知名的疾病，但它绝不是唯一的一个。莱姆病最常见的载体是鹿蜱，鹿蜱还传播其他5种已知病原体。这些病原体中有一个是被称为“巴贝西虫”的寄生虫。它能像疟疾一样感染红血球，导致“巴贝西虫病”——一种可能致命的疾病。 Now we learn that these tick-borne diseases may have more in common than their host. Because Lyme disease may actually facilitate the spread of babesiosis. Thats according to a study in the journal PLOS ONE. 现在我们了解到，这些蜱传播的疾病除了载体相同以外，可能还有更多的共同点。因为莱姆病很有可能会促进“巴贝西虫病”的传播。此结论依据《公共科学图书馆》期刊的一项研究。 Researchers allowed ticks to feed on mice infected with babesiosis, or with both babesiosis and Lyme. And ticks that fed on mice with just babesiosis were less likely to pick up the parasites than were ticks who munched on mice carrying both infections. Study author Maria Diuk-Wasser of Columbia University says the one-two punch of both diseases could be too much for the mice to handle. The immune system may be, we could say, occupied with one pathogen, and decreases the response to the other one. Based on field studies, she and her co-authors believe the same phenomenon may be happening in nature, too. 研究人员让蜱虫以感染了“巴贝西虫病”的小鼠或者同时感染了“巴贝西虫病”和莱姆病的小鼠为食。实验证明，食用了只感染“巴贝西虫病”小鼠的蜱虫染上寄生虫的可能性比另外一组要小。该研究的作者，来自哥伦比亚大学的玛丽亚·瓦塞尔说，这两种疾病的“组合拳”对老鼠来说可能是无法承受的。”可以说，免疫系统可能忙于应对一种病原体，因此减少了对另一种疾病的反应。”根据现场研究，她和她的合作者们认为同样的现象可能也发生在自然界。 For now, at least, babesiosis isnt as widespread as Lyme. And if these results are correct, cutting down on Lymes prevalence might also slow the spread of babesiosis, So we would get a synergistic effect of a control method that could attack both diseases at the same time. If, that is, we can find a truly e