“超级真菌”在美爆发
近日，一种名为耳念珠菌（Candida auris）的多重耐药性真菌在美国多地爆发，全美已有587例确诊病例。
《纽约时报》称，一直以来抗药性病菌感染是人类最难对付的健康威胁之一，耳念珠菌的爆发让解决这一问题更加困难：
C.auris is so tenacious, in part, because it is impervious to major antifungal medications, making it a new example of one of the world’s most intractable health threats: the rise of drug-resistant infections.
耳念珠菌十分麻烦，部分原因是它对主要的抗真菌药物有耐药性，这使它为世界上最难对付的健康威胁之一——抗药性病菌感染的增多——增添了新难度。
The symptoms - fever, aches and fatigue - are seemingly ordinary, but when a person gets infected, particularly someone already unhealthy, such commonplace symptoms can be fatal.
耳念珠菌感染后出现的症状看似普通，包括发热、疼痛和乏力。但一旦人们，尤其是非健康的人群感染了，这些普通的症状是致命的。
The source of the C.auris is unknown. It is generally believed that this is a newly evolved new species that quickly adapts to the human host environment, mainly causing blood infections with a mortality rate of up to 60%.
耳念真菌来源目前尚不明确。普遍认为，这是新近进化出来的、快速适应人体宿主环境能力的新物种，主要引起血液感染，致死率高达60%。
Last May, an elderly man was admitted to the Brooklyn branch of Mount Sinai Hospital for abdominal surgery. A blood test revealed that he was infected with a newly discovered germ as deadly as it was mysterious. Doctors swiftly isolated him in the intensive care unit.
纽约市西奈山医院去年5月为一名老年男性患者做腹部手术时，发现他感染了一种“神秘而致命”的真菌，医院迅速将其隔离在重症监护室。
Tests showed it was everywhere in his room, so invasive that the hospital needed special cleaning equipment and had to rip out some of the ceiling and floor tiles to eradicate it.
当时，病房很多地方都遭到了真菌入侵，院方为此对墙壁、病床、门、水槽、电话都进行了特殊消毒，甚至拆除了部分天花板和地板。
In the United States, 587 cases of people having contracted C. auris have been reported, concentrated with 309 in New York, 104 in New Jersey and 144 in Illinois, according to the C.D.C.
根据CDC的数据，在美国，已经报告了587例感染耳念珠菌的病例，其中纽约有309例，新泽西有104例，伊利诺斯州有144例。
CDC已将耳念珠菌列入“紧急威胁”名单
It began in 2009, when doctors in Tokyo swabbed the ear of a 70-year-old woman and found an unknown strain of fungus that can infect humans and, in severe cases, cause a blood infection in high-risk patients.
耳念珠菌在2009年首次被发现，当时日本一名医生从一位70岁妇女的耳中发现了一种未知的真菌。这种真菌可以感染人类，严重时，还会导致高危患者的血液感染。
Over the last five years, it has hit a neonatal unit in Venezuela, swept through a hospital in Spain, forced a prestigious British medical center to shut down its intensive care unit, and taken root in India, Pakistan and South Africa.
在过去5年里，它致使委内瑞拉的一个新生儿病房、西班牙的一家医院感染，迫使英国一家颇有声望的医疗中心关闭了其重症监护室，并在印度、巴基斯坦和南非扎根。
This kind of germ will not have much impact on the average person. It mainly occurs in hospitals, such as ICU and other places, so the mortality rate is high. People with normal immunity will not be infected on a daily basis.
这种病菌对一般人不会造成太大的影响。其主要发生在医院内部，如ICU等场所，因此死亡率较高。免疫力正常人群日常不会感染。
