Is a cure for Aids within reach?

艾滋病的治愈方法是否触手可及？

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几十年来，艾滋病一直是世界上最难对付的“超级绝症”之一，从人类历史上第一次诊断出艾滋病病例的 20 世纪 80 年代早期到 2017 年，艾滋病夺走了全球大约 3500 万人民的生命，这个数量差不多赶上了整个加拿大的人口数量。虽然目前的手段还不能将艾滋病毒彻底消灭，但科学家们一直都没有停止探索根治艾滋病的方法。最近，英国《卫报》就曝出：艾滋病的治疗研究有了新的突破！难道在不远的将来，艾滋病真的能被根治了？

More than 50 years after it jumped the species barrier and became one of the most devastating viruses to affect mankind, HIV remains a stubborn adversary. Treatment has improved dramatically over the past 20 years, but people who are infected will remain so for the rest of their lives, and must take one pill daily—at one time it was a cocktail of 30.

半个多世纪前，艾滋病毒跨越了物种界限，成为了影响人类的最具破坏性的病毒之一，如今，它仍然是（人类）顽固的对手。在过去的 20 年里，艾滋病的治疗已经有了很大的进展，但感染艾滋病毒的人群在他们的余生还是会饱受艾滋病毒的折磨，每天必须得服用一片药——曾经，他们每天得服用 30 片不同的药。

But now, as another World Aids Day pulls into view, scientists are beginning to ask if the biggest breakthrough—an out-and-out cure for the tens of millions who have contracted the virus—could be in sight.

然而现在，随着另一个世界艾滋病日的到来，科学家们开始探寻最大的突破——一种能完全治愈数千万艾滋病毒感染者的疗法——是否有可能出现。

The excitement lies in research that is having some success in drawing the virus out of a latent stage so that it could be destroyed.

鼓舞人心的是，研究正取得一些成绩：把艾滋病毒从潜伏期抽离出来，如此便可以将其摧毁。

The difficulty in dealing once and for all with HIV is that, unlike other viruses, HIV-infected cells are able to “hide” by entering a resting phase that makes them invisible to our immune system and current treatment therapies.

彻底对付艾滋病毒的难点在于，和别的病毒不同，感染了艾滋病毒的细胞可以通过进入一段休眠期“隐藏”起来，人类自身的免疫系统和当前的治疗方法都看不见这些细胞。

The deadliness of the disease in some regions, the tremendous expense and the pressure on patients, means that a cure remains an important goal. There are a number of different approaches currently being studied.

艾滋病不仅在一些地区具有极大的致命性，还给病人们带来了极大的代价和压力，这些都意味着艾滋病的治愈方法一直都是（人类）重要的目标。目前，（人们）正在研究一些不同的治疗方法。

One approach, often named the “kick and kill” or “shock and kill”, aims to kick the resting cells out of their sleep so they can be pinpointed and eliminated.

其中一种治疗方法，经常被叫做“剥离清除法”，目的在于将休眠的细胞从睡眠中踢出来，确定它们的位置，然后将它们一网打尽。

Sarah Fidler, professor of HIV medicine at Imperial College London, who recently led a major study testing the efficacy of the kick and kill method said: “The idea is to reactivate the latent cells so they start producing the proteins on their surface so they look different from healthy cells. We would do this with some kind of drug, which is what we're in the process of determining.”

伦敦帝国理工学院的艾滋病毒医学教授萨拉·费德勒最近领导了一项主要研究，测试剥离清除法的效果。她表示：“（我们的）想法是让潜伏的细胞重新激活，它们就开始在自身表面产生蛋白质，让自己看起来和健康的细胞不一样。我们会用某种药物来做这件事，至于是哪一种药物，我们正在确定的过程中。”

—————  文章来源 / 卫报

重点词汇

within reach

触手可及的；（时间或空间上）邻近的

devastating/ˈdevəsteɪtɪŋ/

adj. 破坏性极大的；毁灭性的

e.g.

a devastating fire

a devastating explosion

stubborn/ˈstʌbərn/

adj. 难以对付的；顽固的；棘手的

e.g.

He is as stubborn as a mule.

adversary/ˈædvərseri/

n. 敌手，对手

cocktail/ˈkɑːkteɪl/

n. （常指掺合不太相容的）混合物；鸡尾酒

out-and-out/ˌaʊt ən ˈaʊt/

adj. 十足的；完全的；彻头彻尾的

e.g.

an out-and-out lie / success

contract/kɑːnˈtrækt/

v. 感染（疾病），得（病）

latent/ˈleɪtnt/

adj. 潜在的；潜伏的；隐藏的

once and for all

彻底地；一次了结地

e.g.

We need to settle this once and for all.

He closed his shop once and for all and retired.

invisible/ɪnˈvɪzəbl/

adj. 看不见的；隐形的

deadliness/ˈdedlinis/

n. 致命性

pinpoint/ˈpɪnpɔɪnt/

v. 确定（位置或时间）； 准确解释（或说明）

efficacy/ˈefɪkəsi/

n. 功效，效验，效力