美国国家公共电台 NPR Living With Zika In Puerto Rico Means Watching, Waiting And Fearing Judgment

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Puerto Rico is grappling with a severe Zika outbreak. We still don't know how many people have been infected since the mosquito-borne virus appeared on the U.S. territory more than a year ago. Nearly 40,000 cases of Zika have been confirmed. But doctors warn many more may have gotten infected without knowing it. And among those confirmed cases, more than 3,000 pregnant women. We're going to hear from NPR's Greg Allen now. He reports that doctors in Puerto Rico are just beginning to assess the long-term consequences for children born to mothers with Zika.

GREG ALLEN, BYLINE¹: Micaela Delgado is a beautiful, dark-eyed baby girl with a ready smile, just 8 months old. She's one of more than a thousand babies born in Puerto Rico to mothers with Zika. Her mother, 22-year-old Yalieth Gonzalez, says despite all her worries, so far, Mckayla's development appears normal.

YALIETH GONZALEZ: (Through interpreter) She's very active. She's up on her own now. She's crawling. She's already saying mama and papa. She's a very happy baby. She has a lot of energy.

ALLEN: Gonzalez doesn't know how she got Zika. She was just three months pregnant when she had symptoms and went to the hospital. Zika was new in Puerto Rico at that time. But the more she heard about the disease, the more Gonzalez worried. Doctors monitored her baby's development with regular ultrasounds and warned her about the possibility of birth defects. The worst part of her pregnancy² was when it came time for her delivery. Gonzalez says she was in labor³ for 22 long, agonizing⁴ hours.

GONZALEZ: (Through interpreter) What would I do if she was born with health problems, I thought. I was young. What would my life be like? I wanted to see her, but at the same time, I was scared, scared of how I would feel if she was born with medical problems.

ALLEN: Gonzalez was treated here, at the High Risk Pregnancy Clinic at the University of Puerto Rico's hospital. Dr. Alberto de la Vega has seen a fifth of the more than 3,000 pregnant women on the island who tested positive for Zika.

ALBERTO DE LA VEGA: Among those patients, we've had at least 14 or 15 confirmed cases in which severe brain damage caused by the Zika virus has occurred.

ALLEN: Some of those cases included microcephaly. For babies born to mothers infected in the first trimester, de la Vega says the risk of brain damage is between 2 and 4 percent. But he's seeing many other problems in his patients infected with Zika, including mothers going into premature⁵ labor and a higher number of miscarriages⁶. But he says what worries him most is that even in cases where babies appear normal, their brains show lagging growth.

DE LA VEGA: What does that mean in terms of future development? No one has an idea. If you have a condition that can cause severe brain damage, it's not going to be an either-or situation. This has to be a spectrum⁷ of problems that are yet to be defined.

ALLEN: Puerto Rico's health department plans to monitor the children for three to five years. Many are being seen at the University of Puerto Rico by Dr. Carmen Zorrilla. She compares the impact of Zika with that of rubella, which caused birth defects in tens of thousands of children in the U.S. until a vaccine⁸ was discovered in the late 1960s. Years later, Zorrilla says, researchers checked back with adults who had been born to moms infected with rubella but who appeared normal at birth.

CARMEN ZORRILLA: They found an increased rate of schizophrenia and bipolar disorders⁹ on these people who were exposed to rubella while they were in utero. So it's not until 20 years from now that we might say, oh, Zika caused this or that.

ALLEN: With the rainy season approaching, the time when disease-carrying mosquitoes become active, Zorrilla worries many on the island have become complacent¹⁰. One problem, she says, is that women who have babies with birth defects have been reluctant to go public because of the stigma¹¹ of the disease.

ZORRILLA: Oh, you were not protecting yourself. You were not using the mosquito repellent. You're not using condoms. So it's sort of like they feel responsible. So you have pregnant women with a viral disease that might cause birth defects, which is serious. And then you're blaming them for getting it.

ALLEN: That's how Yalieth Gonzalez felt when she found out she was infected with Zika. At first, she only shared the news with her mother and her baby's father, concerned she would be judged. Micaela sees her pediatrician every month to check her development, head size and other benchmarks. Doctors are also monitoring the baby's vision and hearing. It all looks good now. But it could be years before any anomalies are identified. It was only after Micaela was born that Gonzalez says she felt strong enough to share her story with friends.

GONZALEZ: (Through interpreter) People should know that Zika is real. I was lucky that my baby was born healthy. There are many people in Puerto Rico who don't take Zika seriously. And we should.

ALLEN: Epidemiologists expect to see fewer cases in Puerto Rico this year than last. But the disease is now endemic on the island. That means until a vaccine is available, Zika will continue to pose a risk for women who become pregnant and their babies. Greg Allen, NPR News, San Juan, Puerto Rico.

1 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。

2 pregnancy   

n.怀孕，怀孕期

参考例句：

• Early pregnancy is often accompanied by nausea.怀孕早期常有恶心的现象。
• Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of miscarriage.怀孕期吸烟会增加流产的危险。

3 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

4 agonizing   

adj.痛苦难忍的；使人苦恼的v.使极度痛苦；折磨(agonize的ing形式)

参考例句：

• I spent days agonizing over whether to take the job or not. 我用了好些天苦苦思考是否接受这个工作。
• his father's agonizing death 他父亲极度痛苦的死

5 premature   

adj.比预期时间早的；不成熟的，仓促的

参考例句：

• It is yet premature to predict the possible outcome of the dialogue.预言这次对话可能有什么结果为时尚早。
• The premature baby is doing well.那个早产的婴儿很健康。

6 miscarriages   

流产( miscarriage的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Miscarriages are usually caused by abnormal chromosome patterns in the fetus. 流产通常是因为胎儿的染色体异常造成的。
• Criminals go unpunishedareconvicted and are miscarriages of justice. 罪犯会逍遥法外，法律会伤及无辜，审判不公时有发生。

7 spectrum   

n.谱，光谱，频谱；范围，幅度，系列

参考例句：

• This is a kind of atomic spectrum.这是一种原子光谱。
• We have known much of the constitution of the solar spectrum.关于太阳光谱的构成，我们已了解不少。

8 vaccine   

n.牛痘苗，疫苗；adj.牛痘的，疫苗的

参考例句：

• The polio vaccine has saved millions of lives.脊髓灰质炎疫苗挽救了数以百万计的生命。
• She takes a vaccine against influenza every fall.她每年秋季接种流感疫苗。

9 disorders   

n.混乱( disorder的名词复数 )；凌乱；骚乱；（身心、机能）失调

参考例句：

• Reports of anorexia and other eating disorders are on the increase. 据报告，厌食症和其他饮食方面的功能紊乱发生率正在不断增长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The announcement led to violent civil disorders. 这项宣布引起剧烈的骚乱。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 complacent   

adj.自满的；自鸣得意的

参考例句：

• We must not become complacent the moment we have some success.我们决不能一见成绩就自满起来。
• She was complacent about her achievements.她对自己的成绩沾沾自喜。

11 stigma   

n.耻辱，污名；(花的)柱头

参考例句：

• Being an unmarried mother used to carry a social stigma.做未婚母亲在社会上曾是不光彩的事。
• The stigma of losing weighed heavily on the team.失败的耻辱让整个队伍压力沉重。