美国国家公共电台 NPR How Worried Should We Be About Ebola In Congo?

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

More than two months since an Ebola outbreak was declared in an eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, health officials are still struggling to end it. So far, at least 130 people have been infected. Last week, the World Health Organization declared that the risk is now very high that the disease will spread to other parts of the country and to neighboring countries. And yet there are some key health officials who remain optimistic that it won't actually come to that. NPR's Nurith Aizenman has more.

NURITH AIZENMAN, BYLINE¹: It was always clear this outbreak was going to be extra-challenging. It's taking place in a part of the DRC where a violent conflict is raging. Mike Ryan is an assistant director general of the World Health Organization.

MIKE RYAN: We've had relentless², persistent³ attacks going on since the 24 of August. We've had 11 separate incidents.

AIZENMAN: Among the worst - two weekends ago, rebels killed more than 20 people, mostly civilians⁴, in the current epicenter of the Ebola outbreak, a city called Beni.

RYAN: That's extremely close. That's a thousand meters from where we have hundreds of people based.

AIZENMAN: It took three days to fully⁵ resume operations. And when it comes to Ebola, time is of the essence. The main strategy has been to isolate⁶ and treat anyone with symptoms, then quickly track down anyone who has had contact with them - and any contacts of those contacts - to give them an experimental vaccine⁷. Miss just one person...

RYAN: Then, potentially, there are hundreds of more people exposed.

AIZENMAN: This is also why Ryan is concerned about another difficulty. While thousands of people have agreed to be vaccinated⁸, practically every day...

RYAN: Vaccination⁹ teams have arrived in villages, and there's been people claiming that the vaccinators themselves are bringing the disease.

AIZENMAN: The protesters have stoned vehicles of health workers and also safe burial teams, sometimes causing serious injuries. And the mistrust has helped drive a third worrisome development. Multiple people who were infected in the epicenter then opted¹⁰ to flee to locations several hours away. That's stretching the capacity of responders. It's also concerning because of another feature of this province of the DRC, called North Kivu.

JOHN JOHNSON: Well, North Kivu is one of the more densely¹¹ populated areas of the Congo.

AIZENMAN: John Johnson has been working there with Doctors Without Borders. He notes that one of the cities with new cases, Butembo, has about a million people.

JOHNSON: It's going to be very hard to keep up with.

AIZENMAN: But the WHO's Mike Ryan says it's worth noting that so far, the vast majority of cases are tightly concentrated.

RYAN: This isn't spread in the classic sense of moving, you know, from town to town along a wave-like transmission. It's more like sparks that have jumped across the rainforest and started a small fire somewhere else.

AIZENMAN: And for the moment, at least, all of the new cases are linked to infected individuals that health officials already knew about. Ryan says the upshot is health officials have reached a sort of draw with the virus, with the number of new cases plateauing at seven to 10 per week. What will it take to turn the corner?

RYAN: There are some responses where, really, the end is prolonged and sometimes painful.

AIZENMAN: This is one of them, Ryan says, so we've got to be prepared to grind it out. Nurith Aizenman, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF NOMAK'S "FORCE FOR TRUTH")

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 relentless   

adj.残酷的，不留情的，无怜悯心的

参考例句：

• The traffic noise is relentless.交通车辆的噪音一刻也不停止。
• Their training has to be relentless.他们的训练必须是无情的。

3 persistent   

adj.坚持不懈的，执意的；持续的

参考例句：

• Albert had a persistent headache that lasted for three days.艾伯特连续头痛了三天。
• She felt embarrassed by his persistent attentions.他不时地向她大献殷勤，使她很难为情。

4 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。

5 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

6 isolate   

vt.使孤立，隔离

参考例句：

• Do not isolate yourself from others.不要把自己孤立起来。
• We should never isolate ourselves from the masses.我们永远不能脱离群众。

7 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。

8 vaccinated   

[医]已接种的，种痘的，接种过疫菌的

参考例句：

• I was vaccinated against tetanus. 我接种了破伤风疫苗。
• Were you vaccinated against smallpox as a child? 你小时候打过天花疫苗吗？

9 vaccination   

n.接种疫苗，种痘

参考例句：

• Vaccination is a preventive against smallpox.种痘是预防天花的方法。
• Doctors suggest getting a tetanus vaccination every ten years.医生建议每十年注射一次破伤风疫苗。

10 opted   

v.选择，挑选( opt的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She was co-opted onto the board. 她获增选为董事会成员。
• After graduating she opted for a career in music. 毕业后她选择了从事音乐工作。

11 densely   

ad.密集地；浓厚地

参考例句：

• A grove of trees shadowed the house densely. 树丛把这幢房子遮蔽得很密实。
• We passed through miles of densely wooded country. 我们穿过好几英里茂密的林地。