There are more phages on earth than every other organism combined, including bacteria.

地球上所有的有机体加起来也没有噬菌体的数量多，包括细菌。

A phage is a virus; not quite alive, not quite dead.

噬菌体是一种病毒；然而它并不完全是活的，也不完全是死的。

In the West, there have been successful phage trials for foot ulcers.

在西方，已经有成功的噬菌体试验治疗足溃疡。

But phages also have major flaws.

然而，噬菌体有一个最大的缺点。

Like any other virus, phages need a host to survive and reproduce.

像所有其他的病毒一样，噬菌体需要宿主来生存繁殖。

This happens when phages, rather than killing their hosts immediately, integrate their genomes into those of their prey.

当噬菌体不是立即杀死宿主，而是将自己的基因组整合到猎物的基因组中时，就会发生这种情况。

Phages, viruses that attack bacteria but don't affect humans, are one promising new avenue to combat bacterial infections.

噬菌体，一种能攻击细菌但不感染人体的病毒，是一个很有前景的对抗细菌感染的新途径。

Several clinical trials of phage therapy have already been successfully conducted in Poland, the nation of Georgia and Bangladesh.

波兰、格鲁吉亚和孟加拉国已经成功地进行了若干噬菌体治疗的临床试验。

That helps the phages, because their bacterial prey also accumulate in mucus, which is thus a rich hunting ground.

这有助于噬菌体，因为细菌的侵染过程也是积聚在粘液中，这就为噬菌体提供了大量的寄生宿主。

Which might make you nervous since phages are responsible for the majority of deaths on earth but you're lucky.

可能世界上大部分死亡都是由噬菌体导致的，这一事实会让你感到紧张，然而你很幸运。