被猫咬伤后鲜为人知的危险

Diana Briske will never forget the day Snuggles attacked.
62岁的戴安娜・布瑞思克(Diana Briske)是明尼苏达州罗切斯特市(Rochester)的一位退休人士，她永远也不会忘记斯纳 丝(Snuggles)伤人的那一天。

The calico cat was getting her regular evening petting when she suddenly bit into Ms. Briske's right hand. The wound didn't bleed, so Ms. Briske simply washed it out. The next morning, though, her hand was swollen and painful. She went to a doctor, who sent her directly to the emergency room.
那天晚上，这只花斑猫在像平常一样接受主人爱抚的时候，突然咬住了戴安娜的右手。当时伤口并没有流血，所以戴安娜就简单用水冲洗了下。但到了第二天早上，她的手就又肿又痛。戴安娜去看了医生，医生直接把她送进了急诊室。

Ms. Briske spent 10 days in the hospital, where surgeons repeatedly drained and cleaned the injury. 'I never dreamed in a thousand years I'd need hand surgery' from a cat bite, said the 62-year-old retiree from Rochester, Minn.
戴安娜在医院住了10天，那里的外科医生反复为她的伤口脓肿引流并进行清理。她说：“我这一辈子做梦也没想到，就因为被猫咬了一次，我竟然需要做手部手术。”

A new study by researchers at the Mayo Clinic has found that of 193 patients who came in for cat bites on their hands over a three-year period, 30% had to be hospitalized for an average stay of 3.2 days. Most of those admitted, like Ms. Briske, needed their wounds surgically cleaned to eliminate infections, according to the study, published this month in the Journal of Hand Surgery.
梅奥诊所(Mayo Clinic)研究人员进行的一项新研究发现，在三年的时间里，193名因手部被猫咬伤而前来就诊的病人中，有30%的人不得不住院治疗，其平均住院时间为3.2天。该研究论文于本月发表在《手外科杂志》(Journal of Hand Surgery)上，论文还称，大多数被收治的病人，如戴安娜，他们的伤口都需要手术清理以消除感染。

'Cat bites can be very serious, and when you do get an infection, it can be very difficult to treat,' said Brian T. Carlsen, a Mayo surgeon who was an author of the study. That's particularly true with a hand injury because of the structure of the tendons and joints, he said.
该研究的一名作者、梅奥诊所的外科医生布莱恩・T.卡尔森(Brian T. Carlsen)说：“被猫咬伤会非常严重，当你真的感染后，将会很难治疗。”他还说，如果是手部被咬伤，因为其肌腱和关节的结构，情况更是如此。

An estimated 45.3 million U.S. households had cats in 2012, up from 38.4 million in 2006, according to the American Pet Products Association. Pets may reduce stress in, and lift the mood of, their owners, some studies suggest. But a growing body of research, in fields ranging from psychology to parasitology, points to possible health concerns.
据美国宠物产品协会(American Pet Products Association)称，2006年，全美有3,840万户家庭养了猫，这一数据在2012年估计升至4,530万。一些研究表明，宠物可能会减少主人的压力并改善他们的情绪。但越来越多的研究──从心理学到寄生虫学领域──都指出了宠物可能带来的健康问题。

Cats' sharp teeth often penetrate deeply, creating punctures that may not appear serious but can easily harbor bacteria that live in the animals' mouths. Cat bites represent around 10% to 15% of emergency-room visits tied to animal bites, according to the Mayo paper. Cat scratches can also cause infections, doctors say.
猫的尖牙经常会深深穿透被咬对象，造成一些可能看似并不严重的伤口，但它们却易成为生长在动物口中那些细菌的温床。梅奥诊所那项研究的论文指出，在因动物咬伤而到急诊室就医的患者中，有10%到15%的人都是被猫咬伤的。医生们还称，被猫抓伤也会引起感染。

Dogs are involved in a far larger percentage of bite-related emergency-room visits, but they tend to pose a different type of hazard. They will often create a bigger wound, but they don't have the needlelike effect of cat bites that can plant bacteria deep in the flesh, doctors say.
在因动物咬伤而到急诊室就医的病例中，被狗咬伤占的比例更大，远远超过猫伤，但狗一般会造成另一种类型的危险。医生们说，狗咬的地方常常会形成一个更大的伤口，但它们不会像猫咬那样具有针扎似的效果，后者会将细菌深深地“种入”肉体内。

For reasons that aren't clear, research has suggested a possible link between cat bites and human depression. David A. Hanauer, an associate professor at the University of Michigan Medical School, analyzed electronic health records of around 1.3 million patients seen by the university's health system and found that 41% of those treated for cat bites were also diagnosed at some point with depression. 'There definitely is an association there,' said Dr. Hanauer. But, he said, 'we don't know why,' and the link doesn't necessarily imply causation. The research was published in August in PLOS ONE.
研究已表明，在猫咬伤和人类抑郁之间可能存在着某种关联，其原因目前尚不清楚。密歇根大学医学院(University of Michigan Medical School)副教授大卫・A.哈诺尔(David A. Hanauer)分析了由该校医疗卫生系统收治的约130万病患的电子健康记录，结果发现因为猫咬伤而就诊的病人中有41%的人也被诊断为患有某种程度上的抑郁症。哈诺尔博士说：“这其中绝对存在着有某种关联。”但他也称，“我们不知道原因”，而且这种关联并不一定就意味着因果关系。这项研究的论文于去年8月份发表在《公共科学图书馆综合卷》(PLOS ONE)上。