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.
疟疾自古以来就是人类的致命问题。通常，人们遭到携带病毒的蚊子叮咬就会感染疟疾，无数人死于这种疾病。值得庆幸的是，中国科学家屠呦呦发现了一种叫做青蒿素的药物，能够有效对抗疟疾。
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.
今年是屠呦呦发现青蒿素50周年。1969年，屠呦呦成为国家抗疟药物研发项目的负责人，屠呦呦团队采取了一种独特的方法，研究有关中医的书籍。在阅读了2000多种古老疗法后，屠呦呦率团队采集了600多种植物，列出了约380种有可能治疗疟疾的疗法。
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.
其中一种疗法使用艾草进行治疗，至今已经有1600年历史。屠呦呦发现这种疗法有效，便试图以此提取青蒿素来制造药物。起初，屠呦呦提取失败了，于是她又转头研究起古籍，终于找到了一个方法。屠呦呦用低温法提取青蒿素，并最终于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.
在屠呦呦团队证明了青蒿素可以治疗小白鼠和猴子的疟疾后，屠呦呦和两名同事主动充当志愿者试服药物，而后才在患者身上测试。结果表明青蒿素是安全的，所有接受测试的患者都康复了。青蒿素逐渐成为世界卫生组织推荐的一线抗疟药物，挽救了全世界数百万人的生命。
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，屠呦呦被授予诺贝尔生理学或医学奖，她没有独揽所有的荣誉，反而盛赞自己的同事和中医药。屠呦呦曾经说过：“每个科学家都梦想能做一些可以帮助这个世界的事情。”
