一詞日曆：別再用棉籤清理耳朵了！可能有生命危險
2019.04.13
週六 Saturday
infection /in'fekʃən/
n. 感染
Just in case you needed yet another reason to stop cleaning your ears with cotton buds (aka Q-Tips), one man's run-in with a severe and potentially life-threatening infection in his skull may give you pause.
如果你還沒有停止用棉球(又名棉籤)清潔耳朵，我再給你一個理由：一名男子顱內發生了嚴重的、危及生命的感染；不知道這足不足以阻止你。
In a newly published case report, doctors detail how an otherwise healthy 31-year-old man was brought to their hospital's emergency department in an ambulance after collapsing.
在一份新公佈的病例報告中，醫生詳細描述了一名31歲的健康男子如何在昏倒後被救護車送往醫院急診室。
Upon arriving, he experienced seizures, and physical examinations showed he was confused, drowsy, and occupying an altered state of consciousness.
一到醫院，他就癲癇發作，體檢顯示他昏昏欲睡、神志不清。
Later, he revealed he had felt headaches and nausea for several days, during which time he struggled to remember names. Somewhat more ominously, he admitted feeling "intermittent left ear pain and hearing loss" for the past five years.
後來，他透露，他已經頭痛和噁心了好幾天，在這段時間裏，他記不清別人的名字。更糟糕的是，他承認在過去的五年裏，他感到“間歇性的左耳疼痛和聽力喪失”。
When the doctors ran a CT scan on the man's skull, they discovered pus-filled abscesses in the tissue surrounding his brain, and discharge from one of his ears revealed the culprit behind the infection: Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a dangerous disease-causing pathogen.
當醫生對這名男子進行顱內CT掃描時，他們發現他大腦周圍的組織中有膿腫，從他的一隻耳朵裏流出的液體揭示了感染的罪魁禍首：銅綠假單胞菌，這是一種危險的致病病原體。
But how did this nasty bacterium get inside the man's skull?
但是這種討厭的細菌是怎麼進入這個人的顱內的呢?
A physical examination of the man's ear canal hints at the most likely answer: a fragment of a cotton bud, that had been stuck in the man's head for who knows how long – but possibly years, if his earlier symptoms of pain and hearing loss are any guide.
對這名男子的耳道進行的體檢指向的最有可能的答案是：一團棉籤棉絮，誰知道它在這名男子的腦子裏堵了多久——但如果他早期的疼痛和聽力喪失症狀與此有關的話，可能堵了幾年。
"The use of cotton buds inside ears is common and has long been recognised to cause several complications including trauma, tympanic membrane perforation, impacted earwax, infection, and retention of the cotton bud," the report states.
該報告指出：“在耳朵內使用棉籤是很常見的，長期以來，人們一直認爲它會導致多種併發症，包括創傷、鼓膜穿孔、耳垢阻生、感染和棉籤滯留。”
"The present case further reiterates the dangers of cotton bud use, and the importance of foreign body removal if identified in the EAC."
“本病例進一步重申了使用棉籤的危險性，以及如果在EAC中檢查到異物後進行清除的重要性。”
今日詞彙
infection /in'fekʃən/
n. 感染
Infection 是 infect 的名詞形式，它們表示“感染”。
它們最基礎的意思是表示醫學上的“感染”：
A single mosquito can infect a large number of people.
一隻蚊子能夠感染一大羣人。
此外它也被引申出來表示“影響”：
She infected the children with her enthusiasm for music.
她對音樂的熱愛感染了孩子們。
