Every 15 minutes, someone in the United States dies of a superbug that has learned to outsmart even our most sophisticated antibiotics, according to a new report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
美国疾病控制与预防中心的一份新报告称，美国每15分钟就有一个人死于一种超级细菌，这种细菌已经学会如何智胜我们最先进的抗生素。
That's about 35,000 deaths each year from drug-resistant infections, according to the landmark report.
根据这份具有里程碑意义的报告，每年约有3.5万人死于耐药感染。
The report places five drug-resistant superbugs on the CDC's "urgent threat" list -- two more germs than were on the CDC's list in 2013, the last time the agency issued a report on antibiotic resistance.
该报告将5种耐药超级细菌列入了CDC的“紧急威胁”名单——比2013年CDC上一次发布抗生素耐药性报告时多了两种细菌。
Genetic research shows germs have become especially adept at teaching each other how to outwit antibiotics.
基因研究表明，细菌特别擅长教彼此如何战胜抗生素。
"Some miracle drugs no longer perform miracles," according to the report. The report also notes that while superbug infections in hospitals are down, some infections caught elsewhere -- anywhere in the community -- have increased.
报告称:“一些神奇的药物不再产生奇迹。”报告还指出，虽然医院的超级细菌感染有所减少，但在社区其他地方发现的一些感染病例有所增加。
"This is a problem that ultimately affects all of us," said Michael Craig, a CDC senior adviser on antibiotic resistance. "It literally has the potential to affect every person on the planet."
“这是一个最终影响到我们所有人的问题，”美国疾病控制与预防中心抗生素耐药性问题高级顾问迈克尔·克雷格说。“它确实有可能影响地球上的每一个人。”
Anyone can catch a superbug anywhere
任何人都可能在任何地方感染超级细菌
While superbugs typically attack frail, elderly people, anyone can contract a superbug.
虽然超级细菌通常攻击体弱的老年人，但任何人都可能感染超级细菌。
Peggy Lillis was a healthy, vibrant 56-year-old teacher in Brooklyn, who woke up one morning 10 years ago with severe diarrhea.
佩吉·莉利斯是布鲁克林一位健康、充满活力的56岁教师，10年前的一天早上，她醒来时患上了严重的腹泻。 "Being a kindergarten teacher, she just assumed that she caught something from one of the kids or maybe she had food poisoning. She did not think it was a serious threat. None of us did," remembers her son, Christian Lillis.
“作为一名幼儿园老师，她只是认为自己受到孩子的传染，或者可能是食物中毒了。她不认为这是个严重的威胁。她的儿子克里斯蒂安•利利斯回忆道。
Five days later, Peggy was so sick she could barely move.
五天后，佩吉病得几乎不能动弹。
Doctors immediately admitted Peggy to the intensive care unit. She had Clostridioides difficile, or C. diff, one of the urgent threats on the CDC's list.
医生立即让佩吉住进了重症监护室。她患有艰难梭状芽胞杆菌(简称C. diff)，这是疾控中心名单上的紧急威胁之一。
Peggy kidneys were starting to fail, and she was going into septic shock.
The hospital gave Peggy an antibiotic called vancomycin, both intravenously and by enema. But she died the next day -- less than a week after becoming ill.
佩吉的肾脏开始衰竭，她进入感染性休克。医院给佩吉开了一种叫做万古霉素的抗生素，既可以静脉注射，也可以灌肠。但她第二天就去世了——离她生病还不到一周。
"The doctors at the hospital where she was treated -- they did everything they could for her," Christian said. "But bacteria are evolving at a rate that we are not keeping up with."
克里斯蒂安说:“她所在医院的医生为她做了一切可以做的事情。”“但细菌的进化速度是我们跟不上的。”
Christian says they'll never know exactly where or when his mother picked up the C. diff bacteria.
克里斯蒂安说，他们永远不知道他的母亲是在何时何地感染了C. diff细菌。 FIghting antibiotic resistance
与抗生素耐药性作斗争
The answer to the antibiotic resistance crisis is not more powerful antibiotics, according to the new report.
根据这份新报告，抗生素耐药性危机的对策不是更强效的抗生素。
Antibiotics are slow to come to market, and germs will one day render them ineffective anyway, CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield notes in his introduction to the report.
美国疾病控制与预防中心主任罗伯特·雷德菲尔德博士在报告的前言中指出，抗生素进入市场的速度很慢，细菌总有一天会让它们失效。
"We need to adopt aggressive strategies that keep the germs away and infections from occurring in the first place," Redfield wrote.
“我们需要采取积极的策略，从一开始就防止细菌和感染的发生，”雷德菲尔德写道。
The key is to use antibiotics less. With less exposure, germs have fewer opportunities to learn how to fight them.
关键是少用抗生素。由于接触较少，细菌学习如何对抗细菌的机会就较少。
CDC estimates that about a third of prescriptions for antibiotics in emergency rooms and doctors' offices were given for infections that didn't need them. That's 47 million unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions each year.
美国疾病控制与预防中心估计，在急诊室和医生办公室开出的抗生素处方中，约有三分之一是用于治疗不需要抗生素的感染。每年有4700万不必要的抗生素处方药。