美国国家公共电台 NPR Millennial And Gen-X Travelers: Need Another Measles Shot?

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

As kids go back to school, health officials are reminding parents how important vaccines¹ are. There've been more than 1,200 cases of measles³ in the U.S. this year. But a lot of those cases actually involve adults who traveled to countries with current measles outbreaks. April Dembosky of member station KQED learned this firsthand when she scheduled a trip overseas this summer.

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APRIL DEMBOSKY, BYLINE⁴: Destination Bulgaria - a tiny country in Eastern Europe typically overlooked by American tourists. But my husband's father grew up there, so it's long been on our travel list. It's also on the list of countries with measles outbreaks. Some of the biggest are in the Philippines and Ukraine. Bulgaria has had almost 800 cases this year. That's why my travel nurse wanted to check my vaccination⁵ status before I left. When the Measles, Mumps⁶ Rubella vaccine² was first introduced in the early 1970s, scientists recommended just one dose. It wasn't until 1989 that they changed the guidelines to two doses. So a lot of people like me, now in their 30s and 40s, aren't sure if they ever got that second dose or not.

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DEMBOSKY: So my nurse recommended I go to the lab to get a blood test to check my immunity⁷. It's a basic test that looks for antibodies to measles that should come back positive or negative, yes or no.

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DEMBOSKY: Well, my results came back borderline. In other words, maybe I'm immune; maybe I'm not.

ART REINGOLD: The blood test is imperfect.

DEMBOSKY: Dr. Art Reingold is a professor of epidemiology at UC Berkeley.

REINGOLD: If you don't have antibodies, you may still be immune, but your antibodies are not detectable⁸ by the test.

DEMBOSKY: So it's possible I got a false negative, but there's no way to know for sure.

REINGOLD: I know a lot of people who would say that's a good reason not to do testing (laughter) because you get these results. You don't know how to interpret them. People worry.

DEMBOSKY: So now what? My doctor suggested getting another dose of the vaccine. It's safe. But when I look into it, it turns out there are some side effects in adults that don't occur in babies. Twenty-five percent of women get acute arthritis⁹ one to three weeks after getting the vaccine. That would be right in the middle of my trip, right when my husband and I are due to arrive at Bulgaria's Black Sea coast. I imagine lying on the beach, meditating¹⁰ on the rolling waves, racked with joint¹¹ pain. That would be horrible. But, then, getting measles would be worse.

LISA WINSTON: I can fully¹² appreciate getting measles is not something you want.

DEMBOSKY: So I went back to the experts; this time, Dr. Lisa Winston, an epidemiologist at San Francisco General Hospital. First, she tells me not to worry about the acute arthritis, which really means sudden onset¹³ and short lived. And she says the joint pain is usually mild, nothing a couple ibuprofen wouldn't take care of.

WINSTON: If the choice is between, I'm a little worried that I, you know, may get this arthritis or some joint pain versus¹⁴ I'm going someplace where I'm really going to be at risk for measles, the balance would swing towards being vaccinated¹⁵, for sure.

DEMBOSKY: But before I went through the trouble of another medical visit, I wanted to make sure I really needed it. My mom was a nurse, and she kept my pediatric vaccine records. Squeezed in the margin¹⁶, scribbled¹⁷ in black pen, it says that when I was 11, I got a second dose of measles vaccine. Winston tells me, in general, medical records are more reliable than the blood test.

WINSTON: For somebody who knows that they have been vaccinated, who has their history, you would actually be considered immune regardless of what your blood test shows.

DEMBOSKY: Bottom line? if you're not sure what your vaccination status is and you're traveling to a country with a known measles outbreak, there's no harm getting a second dose of vaccine. But if you know you've had two doses, there's no benefit to getting a third.

For NPR News, I'm April Dembosky.

1 vaccines   

疫苗，痘苗( vaccine的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His team are at the forefront of scientific research into vaccines. 他的小组处于疫苗科研的最前沿。
• The vaccines were kept cool in refrigerators. 疫苗放在冰箱中冷藏。

2 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。

3 measles   

n.麻疹，风疹，包虫病，痧子

参考例句：

• The doctor is quite definite about Tom having measles.医生十分肯定汤姆得了麻疹。
• The doctor told her to watch out for symptoms of measles.医生叫她注意麻疹出现的症状。

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 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。

6 mumps   

n.腮腺炎

参考例句：

• Sarah got mumps from her brother.萨拉的弟弟患腮腺炎，传染给她了。
• I was told not go near Charles. He is sickening for mumps.别人告诉我不要走近查尔斯， 他染上了流行性腮腺炎。

7 immunity   

n.优惠；免除；豁免，豁免权

参考例句：

• The law gives public schools immunity from taxation.法律免除公立学校的纳税义务。
• He claims diplomatic immunity to avoid being arrested.他要求外交豁免以便避免被捕。

8 detectable   

adj.可发觉的；可查明的

参考例句：

• The noise is barely detectable by the human ear.人的耳朵几乎是察觉不到这种噪音的。
• The inflection point at this PH is barely detectable.在此PH值下，拐点不易发现。

9 arthritis   

n.关节炎

参考例句：

• Rheumatoid arthritis has also been linked with the virus.风湿性关节炎也与这种病毒有关。
• He spent three months in the hospital with acute rheumatic arthritis.他患急性风湿性关节炎，在医院住了三个月。

10 meditating   

a.沉思的，冥想的

参考例句：

• They were meditating revenge. 他们在谋划进行报复。
• The congressman is meditating a reply to his critics. 这位国会议员正在考虑给他的批评者一个答复。

11 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

12 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。

13 onset   

n.进攻，袭击，开始，突然开始

参考例句：

• The drug must be taken from the onset of the infection.这种药必须在感染的最初期就开始服用。
• Our troops withstood the onset of the enemy.我们的部队抵挡住了敌人的进攻。

14 versus   

prep.以…为对手，对；与…相比之下

参考例句：

• The big match tonight is England versus Spain.今晚的大赛是英格兰对西班牙。
• The most exciting game was Harvard versus Yale.最富紧张刺激的球赛是哈佛队对耶鲁队。

15 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？

16 margin   

n.页边空白；差额；余地，余裕；边，边缘

参考例句：

• We allowed a margin of 20 minutes in catching the train.我们有20分钟的余地赶火车。
• The village is situated at the margin of a forest.村子位于森林的边缘。

17 scribbled   

v.潦草的书写( scribble的过去式和过去分词 )；乱画；草草地写；匆匆记下

参考例句：

• She scribbled his phone number on a scrap of paper. 她把他的电话号码匆匆写在一张小纸片上。
• He scribbled a note to his sister before leaving. 临行前，他给妹妹草草写了一封短信。