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According to the World Health Organization in 2016, tuberculosis killed 13,000 people in Madagascar alone
据世界卫生组织2016年的数据，仅在马达加斯加就有1.3万人死于肺结核，
but fighting the deadly disease is hard in every impoverished country.
在各个贫困国家对抗这一致命疾病是不易的。
Many strains of the TB bacterium have developed strong resistance to the most common drugs
许多肺结核病菌菌株对大多数常用药产生了强烈的耐药性，
so identifying which strain infects each individual patient is of crucial importance.
因此识别患者被哪种菌株感染是至关重要的。
Experts from the University of Oxford, the Pasteur Institute of Madagascar and Stony Brook University in the US
来自牛津大学、马达加斯加巴斯德研究所和美国石溪大学的专家们
are training local health workers how to use a new portable DNA reading device called Oxford Nanopore minION.
正在培训当地的卫生工作者如何使用一种叫做“牛津纳米孔minION”的新型便携式DNA读取设备。
It has a membrane with tiny little holes, otherwise known as nanopores, that has a current running through them
它有一层带有小孔的薄膜，也就是所谓的纳米孔，电流会流经小孔，
and when the DNA goes through those holes it disrupts that current and that can be read as the genetic code of that bug.
当DNA穿过这些小孔时，它就会破坏电流，这就可以被解读为这种细菌的遗传密码。
Plugged to a laptop computer, Nanopore minION can quickly diagnose the disease, eliminating the need for bulky lab equipment.
插到笔记本电脑上的纳米孔minION可以快速诊断疾病，无需使用庞大的实验室器材。
However, analyzing the bacterium's strain so that it can be compared to a library of other strains
但分析细菌的菌株，此举可以和其它菌株进行比较，
and their drug resistance mechanisms takes more time.
我们还需要更长的时间分析耐药机制。
At the moment you have to culture the bugs in the lab and that can take weeks.
目前我们需要在实验室培养细菌，这可能需要几周的时间。
So actually finding out whether a bug is resistant to drugs can take a long time,
我们需要很长一段时间才能判断该细菌是否有耐药性，
delaying treatment and also encouraging the spread of that infection to other people,
此举会延误治疗，也会增加细菌的传播速度。
Along with this training, scientists are now trying to develop a method for sequencing the DNA directly from the patient's saliva and mucus
与此同时，科学家正开发一种直接通过病人唾液和粘液测序DNA的方法，
eliminating the need to develop the bacterium's culture.
从而免除培养细菌。
George Putic, VOA News.
美国之音新闻，乔治·菩提克报道。
