因对抗生素产生耐药性，有些妇女的尿路感染反复发作
因对抗生素产生耐药性，有些妇女的尿路感染反复发作
Urinary tract infections, or UTIs, are some of the most common infections in the world. Today, they are becoming increasingly difficult to treat.
尿路感染是世界上最常见的感染之一。如今，它们变得越来越难治疗。
Around 60 percent of women will get a UTI at some point in their life, and recurrent infections are highly common, with roughly a quarter of all cases popping up again within a year.
大约60%的女性在一生中的某个时候会患上尿路感染，反复感染非常普遍，大约四分之一的病例在一年内再次出现。
In the US alone, UTIs account for more than 8 million office visits and one million emergency department visits annually. For decades, these painful and inconvenient infections have been stopped in their tracks by a routine course of antibiotics, but it appears the prescriptions have begun to falter in recent years.
仅在美国，每年因尿路感染的问诊访问量就超过800万次，急诊室访问量也超过100万次。几十年来，这些痛苦和不方便的感染已经被常规的抗生素疗程所阻止，但最近几年似乎处方已经开始动摇。
As UTI-causing bacteria grow more resistant to antibiotics, some women have no choice but to live with intolerable discomfort, year in and year out.
由于引起尿路感染的细菌对抗生素的耐药性越来越强，一些妇女不得不年复一年地忍受无法忍受的不适。
A recent clinical case study details one elderly woman's struggle with UTIs that lasted for more than 40 years. Nanell Mann began getting these uncomfortable infections after a hysterectomy in 1971, but no matter how many times she was treated, the ailment just kept coming back.
最近的一个临床案例研究详细描述了一位老年妇女与持续40多年的尿路感染的斗争。纳奈尔·曼恩1971年子宫切除术后开始出现这些不舒服的感染，但不管她接受了多少次治疗，这种病还是不断复发。
With each recurrence, it became harder to find an antibiotic that would work. Her doctors were at a loss.
每次复发，都很难找到有效的抗生素。她的医生不知所措。
"They kind of give up on you because they don't know what to do," Mann toldThe Atlantic.
“他们想要放弃我，因为他们不知道该怎么做。”曼恩告诉大西洋。
Mann is not alone in feeling this way. Data on UTIs and antibiotic resistance is still scarce, but initial results, combined with a growing number of hospitalisations, suggest there's something ominous going on.
曼恩并不是唯一有这种感觉的人。关于尿路感染和抗生素耐药性的数据仍然很少，但初步结果，再加上越来越多的住院治疗，表明发生了一些不祥的事情。
Last year, a study in the United Kingdom found a third of all UTIs are now resistant to key antibiotics. This year, a recent paper by the New York City Department of Health showed that a third of UTIs, caused by the most common type of bacteria, E. coli, were resistant to one of the most widely used drugs.
去年，英国的一项研究发现，三分之一的尿路感染者现在对关键抗生素有耐药性。今年，纽约市卫生局最近的一篇论文显示，三分之一的尿路感染者对一种最广泛使用的药物产生了抗药性。
What's more, the researchers found at least one fifth of these infections were resistant to five other common treatments.
更重要的是，研究人员发现，这些感染中至少有五分之一的人对其他五种常见疗法产生了抗药性。
"This is crazy. This is shocking," Lance Price, who researches antibiotic resistance but who was not involved in these studies, told The New York Times.
“这太疯狂了。”兰斯·普莱斯研究抗生素耐药性，但他没有参与这些研究，他在接受《纽约时报》采访时表示。
Shortly after their article ran, The New York Times received interest from nearly 600 people, both men and women, who wanted to share their experiences with recurrent UTIs.
在他们的文章发表后不久，《纽约时报》就收到了近600人的关注，包括男性和女性，他们希望与复发性尿路感染患者分享他们的经历。
Cece Turner, age 30, told reporters she did whatever her doctors told her to do, taking drug after drug to cure her recurrent UTIs.
30岁的ceceeturner告诉记者，她做了医生让她做的一切，一个接一个地服药来治疗复发性尿路感染。
"I ended up being severely ill with a multi-drug resistant infection," she wrote. "Having tried 6+ different courses of antibiotics over the course of 4 months, my UTI was eventually 'cured' in July by a 2 week course of antibiotics."
她写道：“我最终患上了严重的多重耐药感染。”在4个月的时间里，我尝试了6+种不同疗程的抗生素，终于在7月份通过2周的抗生素疗程“治愈”了我的尿路感染。”
Less than a year later, she got a second infection and she demanded a culture immediately.
不到一年之后，她又感染了第二次，她要求立即进行培养。
Nowadays, the only way to tell if a bacterial infection is resistant to a drug is to culture it. This practice, however, takes time and money, and it can't be done for everybody.
现在，判断细菌感染是否对药物产生耐药性的唯一方法是对其进行培养。然而，这种做法需要时间和金钱，并不是每个人都能做到。
It's much easier for doctors to just prescribe antibiotics and be done with it. But in an era of antibiotic resistance, with few other approved alternatives, such practices will need to change.
医生只要开些抗生素就可以了。但在抗生素耐药的时代，由于几乎没有其他被批准的替代品，这种做法将需要改变。
