Malaria has been a deadly problem for humans since ancient times. Usually, people get malaria when infected mosquitoes bite them. Countless people have died from the disease. Thankfully, Chinese scientist Tu Youyou found an effective drug called qinghaosu.
瘧疾自古以來就是人類的致命問題。通常，人們遭到攜帶病毒的蚊子叮咬就會感染瘧疾，無數(shù)人死于這種疾病。值得慶幸的是，中國科學家屠呦呦發(fā)現(xiàn)了一種叫做青蒿素的藥物，能夠有效對抗瘧疾。

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Tu’s discovery. In 1969, Tu became the director of a national project to develop a drug against malaria. Her team took a unique approach. They studied books about classical Chinese medicine. After reading more than 2,000 old remedies, Tu and her team collected over 600 plants and listed almost 380 possible remedies for malaria.
今年是屠呦呦發(fā)現(xiàn)青蒿素50周年。1969年，屠呦呦成為國家抗瘧藥物研發(fā)項目的負責人，屠呦呦團隊采取了一種獨特的方法，研究有關中醫(yī)的書籍。在閱讀了2000多種古老療法后，屠呦呦率團隊采集了600多種植物，列出了約380種有可能治療瘧疾的療法。

One remedy, which is 1,600 years old, uses sweet wormwood as a treatment. Tu found it effective and tried to extract the qinghaosu from it in order to make a drug. The extraction failed at first, so Tu returned to the classical books again and finally found a way. She used a low-temperature method to extract the qinghaosu and finally succeeded in 1972.
其中一種療法使用艾草進行治療，至今已經(jīng)有1600年歷史。屠呦呦發(fā)現(xiàn)這種療法有效，便試圖以此提取青蒿素來制造藥物。起初，屠呦呦提取失敗了，于是她又轉頭研究起古籍，終于找到了一個方法。屠呦呦用低溫法提取青蒿素，并最終于1972年成功。

After her team showed that qinghaosu could treat malaria in mice and monkeys, Tu and two of her colleagues volunteered to test the drug on themselves before testing on human patients. It turned out that qinghaosu was safe and all patients in the test recovered. Gradually, qinghaosu became the first-line treatment for malaria recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), saving millions of lives around the world.
在屠呦呦團隊證明了青蒿素可以治療小白鼠和猴子的瘧疾后，屠呦呦和兩名同事主動充當志愿者試服藥物，而后才在患者身上測試。結果表明青蒿素是安全的，所有接受測試的患者都康復了。青蒿素逐漸成為世界衛(wèi)生組織推薦的一線抗瘧藥物，挽救了全世界數(shù)百萬人的生命。

In 2015, when Tu was awarded with the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine, she refused to take all of the credit. Instead, she praised her colleagues and Chinese traditional medicine. She once said: “Every scientist dreams of doing something that can help the world.”
2015年，屠呦呦被授予諾貝爾生理學或醫(yī)學獎，她沒有獨攬所有的榮譽，反而盛贊自己的同事和中醫(yī)藥。屠呦呦曾經(jīng)說過：“每個科學家都夢想能做一些可以幫助這個世界的事情?！?/span>

以上文章內(nèi)容選自《21世紀學生英文報高中版》，詳情請見《21世紀學生英文報高中版》高二873期