Drug-resistant malaria 抗药性疟疾

媒体英语会带大家一起学习 BBC 撰稿人在报道世界大事时常用到的单词和短语。

科学家们新发现了一种引发疟疾的寄生虫菌株，这类菌株对现有的治疗疟疾最有效的药物青蒿素具有抗药性。以下是 BBC Rebecca Morelle 的报道：

Artemisinin is a frontline drug in the fight against malaria. It's used around the world, and can clear the infection in just a few days. But reports of resistance began to emerge in western Cambodia in 2008, and this has now spread to other areas in South East Asia.

To investigate, scientists sequenced the genomes of more than 800 malaria-causing parasites collected from all around the world. They found that some of the strains present in Cambodia were significantly different to the rest, and these were able to withstand artemisinin treatment.

The researchers don't yet know how the parasites are beating the drugs. But they say understanding their genetic fingerprint will help them to quickly detect and track these strains if they spread.