美国国家公共电台 NPR Puerto Rico's Efforts To Stop Zika Are Hampered By Mistrust

Puerto Rico's Efforts To Stop Zika Are Hampered¹ By Mistrust

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Every time a week goes by, 1,500 more people are reported with Zika in Puerto Rico. That island now counts among the most badly affected² parts of the hemisphere. Hundreds of pregnant women are infected, and it is hard to fight the spread of the virus because of mistrust, indifference³ and competition for attention against other diseases. NPR's Jason Beaubien reports from San Juan.

JASON BEAUBIEN, BYLINE⁴: At a park in the San Jose section of San Juan, Umberto Antonio Guzman is leaning against a chain-link fence watching baseball practice.

(SOUNDBITE OF METAL BAT HITTING BASEBALL)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (Speaking Spanish).

BEAUBIEN: Even just after sunset, the tropical air is hot and sticky. The 58-year-old Guzman knows about Zika, and he says he should be worried about it. But this outbreak isn't as bad as when the island got hit by another new tropical disease chikungunya back in 2014.

UMBERTO ANTONIO GUZMAN: (Speaking Spanish).

BEAUBIEN: "The chikungunya," he says, "was very strong, a lot stronger than Zika. And with Zika, many people don't even have any symptoms," he says.

Just a few weeks ago, Guzman's 15-year-old-son, who's out on the field playing third base, had a bad case of dengue. Guzman shrugs⁵ and says Zika is just one more health problem here people have to deal with. Puerto Rico had its first Zika case in December of last year. Since then, there have been nearly 9,000 more laboratory-confirmed cases. Health officials say the actual number of people who have gotten it is much higher. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicts by the end of the year more than 20 percent of the entire population, or some 700,000 people, could be exposed to Zika.

BRENDA RIVERA GARCIA: Among us scientists, it is scary.

BEAUBIEN: Brenda Rivera Garcia is the state epidemiologist for Puerto Rico. She says this is the first time she's ever seen a mosquito-borne virus that's capable of causing major birth defects. And then, as if that wasn't bad enough, it also turns out to be a sexually transmitted disease.

RIVERA GARCIA: This is something that you would imagine if you were writing science fiction, but it's the reality.

BEAUBIEN: Yet it's difficult to get many people here to pay attention to it.

HIRAM TORRES MONTALVO: Zika is a problem, and we're aware of it. And everybody, of course, they want to keep their families healthy. They don't want them to suffer from this disease.

BEAUBIEN: Hiram Torres Montalvo is a public interest lawyer who has been trying to focus attention on mosquitoes spawning⁶ at open landfills. He says, sometimes people here just don't have time to think about Zika.

TORRES MONTALVO: Since we have so many problems in Puerto Rico - our economy's bad. We have a lot of crime, a lot of social issues, public debt, the problem with the government. I think there we're so overwhelmed by all the problems that we have in Puerto Rico, and maybe we don't pay as much attention as we should to the Zika situation.

BEAUBIEN: One thing that did get attention was a plan backed by the CDC for aerial spraying of insecticide to combat the virus. People here were furious. The mayor of San Juan called it environmental terror, and the governor blocked it.

At a neighborhood cleanup of mosquito breeding grounds near the old city of San Juan, Ralph Rivera Gutierrez is helping⁷ clear garbage out of a vacant lot. They're carrying several old doors out and tossing them into a municipal dump truck.

RALPH RIVERA GUTIERREZ: We will be working on cleaning up all the places that the community finds that are possible breeding places for the Aedes aegypti mosquito.

BEAUBIEN: Rivera Gutierrez, who's the dean of the Graduate School of Public Health at the University of Puerto Rico, says this is an alternative to using insecticides to attack the mosquitoes. He's still irate⁸ about the CDC's proposal for aerial spraying.

RIVERA GUTIERREZ: When we hear about these plans and recommendations from the CDC to spray us, then there's a lot of skepticism and a lot if concern. You know, we are of an invaded country. We have been a colony of the United States for 118 years, and there's been a lot of experimentation⁹ done on us.

BEAUBIEN: The pesticide¹⁰ that was going to be sprayed, Naled, has been used in Puerto Rico in the past during dengue outbreaks. And Naled is currently being sprayed in Dade County, Fla., to try to address the spread of Zika there. Rivera Gutierrez points out correctly, however, that Naled is no longer approved for use in the European Union. And he says the proposal to spray it in Puerto Rico was an overreaction to the threat of Zika.

RIVERA GUTIERREZ: We don't understand it, except for what might be an economic interest in getting rid of that product.

BEAUBIEN: Amidst the heat, the heavy summer rains and the skepticism here, the Zika virus continues to spread, making people sick and possibly harming hundreds of babies that will be born in the months to come. Jason Beaubien, NPR News, San Juan.

1 hampered   

妨碍，束缚，限制( hamper的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The search was hampered by appalling weather conditions. 恶劣的天气妨碍了搜寻工作。
• So thought every harassed, hampered, respectable boy in St. Petersburg. 圣彼德堡镇的那些受折磨、受拘束的体面孩子们个个都是这么想的。

2 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

3 indifference   

n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎

参考例句：

• I was disappointed by his indifference more than somewhat.他的漠不关心使我很失望。
• He feigned indifference to criticism of his work.他假装毫不在意别人批评他的作品。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 shrugs   

n.耸肩（以表示冷淡，怀疑等）( shrug的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany shrugs off this criticism. 匈牙利总理久尔恰尼对这个批评不以为然。 来自互联网
• She shrugs expressively and takes a sip of her latte. 她表达地耸肩而且拿她的拿铁的啜饮。 来自互联网

6 spawning   

产卵

参考例句：

• Encounter sites have a small chance of spawning a "Commander" NPC. 遭遇战地区有很小的几率遇到NPC指挥官。
• Instantly revives your Champion at your Spawning Pool, 9 minute cooldown. 立即在出生地复活你的英雄，冷却时间9分钟。

7 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

8 irate   

adj.发怒的，生气

参考例句：

• The irate animal made for us,coming at a full jump.那头发怒的动物以最快的速度向我们冲过来。
• We have received some irate phone calls from customers.我们接到顾客打来的一些愤怒的电话

9 experimentation   

n.实验，试验，实验法

参考例句：

• Many people object to experimentation on animals.许多人反对用动物做实验。
• Study and analysis are likely to be far cheaper than experimentation.研究和分析的费用可能要比实验少得多。

10 pesticide   

n.杀虫剂，农药

参考例句：

• The pesticide was spread over the vegetable plot.菜田里撒上了农药。
• This pesticide is diluted with water and applied directly to the fields.这种杀虫剂用水稀释后直接施用在田里。