每日一翻：Worse Than the Bite

全美国的城市居民可能有一个公敌：臭虫。但是，放松，不担心，对吧？“据我们所知，臭虫不会传染病菌，但是被它叮之后会很痒很恼人。”纽约市卫生部门如此说。但是那个声明或许是错误的。因为一项新的研究表明臭虫能够传染疾病，特别是通过会引起查格斯病的寄生虫。

Chagas can cause anything from mild headaches to eventual heart failure. The condition is usually spread by what’s called the kissing bug—a relative of bedbugs, which also feeds on blood. But it doesn’t pass the parasite through its saliva, as happens with malaria, for example.

查格斯病会最初会导致轻微的头痛，最终导致心力衰竭。通常是被一种所谓的接吻虫传播导致的，接吻虫是一种和臭虫相关的虫子，也是以血液为食。但是他不是通过它的唾液传播寄生虫的，比如就像疟疾似的。

“You get it when the bug bites you and then defecates on you. The parasite is in the feces of the bug.” Michael Levy, a disease ecologist at the University of Pennsylvania. Levy says scratching the bite then works the parasite into the skin, infecting the victim.

宾夕法尼亚大学的疾病生态学家Michael Levy说，”你在被叮之后虫子会在你身上排泄。寄生虫在臭虫的排泄物中。”Levy说抓破伤口之后寄生虫会进入皮肤，从而感染受害者。

Levy and his colleagues wanted to see if the same thing could happen with bed bugs. So they let em loose on mice that carried the Tripanosoma cruzi parasite. The bugs caught it—and were then able to transmit the parasite back to mice. With one caveat—some mice actually hunted and ate the bugs—a sure route for infection. “People don’t eat bed bugs, so we’re not really at risk of being infected through the oral route by bed bugs.” That said, one mouse actually did catch the disease not by snacking, but through a bedbug bite—more analogous to the way a human might. The study is in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. [Renzo Salazar et al: Bed Bugs (Cimex lectularius) as Vectors ofTrypanosoma cruzi]

Levy和他的同事希望知道同样的事情是否可能发生在臭虫身上。所以他们把携带Tripanosoma cruzi寄生虫的老鼠全身心放松。臭虫抓到它，随后会把寄生虫传回给老鼠。不过有一个前提，一些老鼠实际上捕捉和吃掉了虫子，这是一个确定的感染途径。”人们不吃臭虫，所以我们实际上不存在通过口服的途径被感染的风险。”那就是说，一只老鼠确实不是通过吃而是通过被臭虫叮咬而感染疾病，这非常类似于人类被感染的方式。研究发表在《美国热带医学和卫生》杂志上。

Any advice for the bed bug–phobic? “Don’t panic. It’s important to remember that bed bugs may be able to carry the disease, but they don’t cause it.” Meaning, you’d need to live with someone with Chagas disease, who can pass the parasite to a bed bug, and then actuallycatch it from that bug. Still, Levy says, bugs pave the way for pathogens to spread. “It’s very dangerous to let bugs that feed on human blood get out of control, like unfortunately has happened in the United States and across the world with bed bugs.” Maybe it’s time to treat bed bugs like a public health issue, Levy says, rather than just a pest.

有什么建议能克服对臭虫的恐惧吗？“不要惊慌。记住重要的一点，臭虫或许会携带细菌，但是他们不会感染它。”这意味着，你可能需要和携带查格斯病菌会把寄生虫传播给臭虫的人一起生活，随后实际上从臭虫那里感染病菌。Levy还说，臭虫为病菌的传播提供了途径。“让臭虫不受控制的吸食人类血液是很危险的，就像在美国和全世界臭虫已经带来的不幸。”Levy说，也许是时候把臭虫当作一个公共卫生问题而不仅仅是一种害虫了。

—Christopher Intagliata