Dry air and infections

by Leah Binder

While practicing pediatric oncology at a major teaching hospital, Stephanie Taylor, Harvard Medical School graduate and lecturer, wondered why so many of her young patients came down with infections and the flu, despite the hospital's herculean(費力的) efforts at prevention.

practice / v. (醫生、律師等)執業

pediatric oncology 兒童腫瘤學

major / adj. 主要的

graduate / n. 畢業生

lecturer / n. 大學講師

come down 倒下、病倒

infection / n. 感染

flu /flu / n. 流感

prevention / n. 預防(由prevent加后綴-ion變成名詞)

She and colleagues studied 370 patients in one unit of a hospital to try to isolate the factors associated with patient infections. They tested and retested 8 million data points controlling for every variable they could think of to explain the likelihood of infection. Was it hand hygiene, fragility(虛弱程度) of the patients, or room cleaning procedures

isolate /  v. 分離

factor /n. 因素

associate / v. 聯系、關聯

retest /v. 再次測試(由test加上表示再次的前綴re-)

data / n. 數據

variable /  n. 變量

likelihood /  n. 可能性

hygiene /  n. 衛生

procedure /n. 流程、步驟

While all those factors had modest influence, one factor stood out above them all, and it was dry air. At low relative humidity, indoor air was strongly associated with higher infection rates.

modest / adj. 不大的

influence / n. 影響

stand out 遠超同類

relative /  adj. 相對的

humidity /n. 濕度(由humid加后綴-ity變成名詞)

strongly / adv. 強烈地(由strong加后綴-ly變成副詞)

rate /n. 率、比率

"When we dry the air out, droplets and skin flakes(碎屑) carrying viruses and bacteria are launched into the air, traveling far and over long periods of time. The microbes that survive this launching tend to be the ones that cause healthcare-associated infections," said Taylor. "Even worse, in addition to this increased exposure to infectious particles, the dry air also harms our natural immune barriers which protect us from infections."

dry out 使干燥

droplet / n. 液滴

virus /  n. 病毒

bacterium / n. 細菌、病菌(bacteria /b k tri / 是復數)

launch /v. 發射、散發出

microbe / n. 微生物(尤指致病的細菌、病毒等)

survive /v. 存活

tend /v. 傾向于

cause /n. 造成

healthcare / n. 健康照護、醫療服務(由health和care組成)

in addition to 除了

exposure / n. (無防護的)接觸(有害物質)

infectious / adj. 傳染性的

particle /  n. 微粒

harm / v. 傷害、危害

immune /adj. 免疫的

barrier / n. 屏障

Scientists attribute the influence of dry air to a new understanding about the behavior of airborne(經空氣傳播的) particles, or "infectious aerosol(飛沫) transmissions." They used to assume the microbes in desiccated(脫水的) droplets were dead, but advances in the past several years changed that thinking.

attribute /something to 把某事歸因于

or /conj. 也就是

transmission / n. 傳送、傳染

assume / v. 設想、認為

advance / n. 進步

"With new genetic analysis tools, we are finding out that most of the microbes are not dead at all. They are simply dormant(蟄伏的) while waiting for a source of rehydration(補水)," Taylor explained. "Humans are an ideal source of rehydration, since we are basically 60% water. When a tiny infectious particle lands on or in a patient, the pathogen(病原體) rehydrates(補水) and begins the infectious cycle all over again."

genetic / adj. 基因的

analysis / n. 分析

simply /  adv. 僅僅、只不過

source /n. 來源、源頭

ideal / adj. 理想的

basically / adv. 基本上(由basic加后綴-ally變成副詞)

cycle /  n. 循環

all over again 重頭再來

According to her research, and subsequent studies in the medical literature, the "sweet spot" for indoor air is between 40% and 60% relative humidity. Every hospital, school, and home should adjust room hydration(含水量) to the sweet spot, according to Taylor. She travels the country speaking with healthcare and business groups to urge adoption of the 40%–60% relative humidity standard.

subsequent / adj. 隨后的

medical /  adj. 醫學的

literature /  n. 文獻

sweet spot 指效果最好的點

adjust / v. 調整、調節

urge /v. 敦促

adoption / n. 采納(由adopt加后綴-ion變成名詞)

standard /  n. 標準

Taylor practices what she preaches. "My husband has ongoing respiratory(呼吸的) problems and had at least one serious illness each winter. Ever since we started monitoring our indoor relative humidity and keeping it around 40%, even when using our wood stove, he has not been sick. Our dogs also love it because they do not get static electricity shocks when being petted in the wintertime!"

practise what you preach 言行一致、身體力行

ongoing / adj. 持續存在的

monitor / v. 監控

static / electricity 靜電

shock / n. 電擊

pet / v. 撫摸寵物

wintertime / n. 冬季

英文原文節選自Forbe