PBS高端访谈:埃博拉疫苗结果喜人,但仍需进一步监测

 　　JUDY WOODRUFF: Next, a long looked-for breakthrough in the battle against the deadly Ebola virus. One experimental vaccine¹ has been shown to be 100 percent effective on humans.

　　Hari Sreenivasan has the story.

　　HARI SREENIVASAN: The results of a two-year trial led by the World Health Organization were published in the journal "Lancet" yesterday. They showed that of nearly 6,000 people vaccinated³ in Guinea last year, none had contracted Ebola after a ten-day period. While in the group not vaccinated, 23 cases developed.

　　The vaccine still needs regulatory approval, but is considered so effective that some 300,000 doses have already been stockpiled. The 2014 Ebola epidemic⁴ in West Africa killed 11,000 people.

　　For more on this promising⁵ news, we turn once again to Dr. Anthony Fauci. He's director of the National Institute for Allergy⁶ and Infectious Diseases, and has long been involved in vaccine development.

　　Dr. Fauci, everyone's pretty excited about the 100 percent efficacy rate. Let's look under the hood⁷ a bit. This isn't the same type of clinical trial that we're used to in drug approval or vaccine approval, is it?

　　DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, Director, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases: No, it's a bit unusual. The vaccine trial is referred to as a ring vaccine trial which means that cases were identified in Guinea that indeed had Ebola. Then, instead of preemptively ahead of time vaccinating⁸ whole groups of populations, the individuals were divided into two separate groups, groups that were vaccinated immediately who had contact with the index case or cases or contact of contacts, and another group that was vaccinated 21 days later.

　　So, it was more of an acute response to an outbreak by trying to protect those people who were, in reality or potentially exposed to the index cases. That's not the standard way that you do a vaccine trial.

　　And so, although these results are really quite encouraging, there is still a lot more work to be done on vaccines⁹ for Ebola, and that's exactly where we're heading with this, to get many more people in a larger trial and to also determine, is the effect durable¹⁰? In other words, if I vaccinate² you now, will you be protected six months, eight months or a year from now and just how powerful that protective response would be.

　　And that's really the kinds of questions that still remain a bit unanswered, despite the fact that this finding now from the Guinea trial is really quite impressive.

　　埃博拉疫苗结果喜人,但仍需进一步监测

　　HARI SREENIVASAN: There was one vaccine that was tested at the center of this, but there are multiple strains of Ebola.

　　DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: That's another question that needs to be answered and it's a good point that you bring up. This vaccine that was tested in Guinea against the Zaire strain of Ebola.

　　There are more than one strain, particularly, a second train called the Sudan strain, but maybe two other strains. And when we ultimately get the vaccine that what we would consider to be the optimal¹¹ season, we would want one that, A, has a great durability¹² of effect, that would be effective over a considerable period of time, and, B, something that would be able to protect essentially¹³ against all strains of Ebola, because there are different strains that pop up in different parts of sub-Saharan Africa, and we have clear-cut experience with that.

　　HARI SREENIVASAN: So, given the test that's just been done with this specific vaccine, this is not like a polio vaccine where you get it once in your life and you're vaccinated. You're still going to need a lot more tests to figure out that combination of different viruses and how long they last.

　　DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: Absolutely. Those are critical questions that you ask. This — some people when they hear about how really impressive the results are, they think, OK, we're done now with the Ebola vaccine, we're going to move on because we've solved the problem.

　　We haven't come anywhere near solving the problem because there are still so many unanswered questions that we need to pursue before we get a vaccine that we feel would be universally able to be widespread administered to people to protect them from outbreaks of Ebola of multiple different strains. There's a lot of work to be done.

　　HARI SREENIVASAN: All right. While we have you, I also wanted to just ask you about the avian flu that's in Asia right now. We're reporting about the millions of birds in Korea and other parts of Asia that have been culled¹⁴ already. How concerned should we about this?

　　DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: We need to pay attention to this. I don't think there's any real need to panic at all about it, because we have been following outbreaks of bird flu for decades. The first time we got involved with it here was back in the '90s in Hong Kong when you had the H5N1 which are viruses that are influenza¹⁵ viruses that are fundamentally viruses of fowl¹⁶, water fowl, or chickens, sometimes pigs and other animals. They rarely jump into species and infect humans, and when they do infect humans, they do not efficiently¹⁷ spread from human-to-human. That's where most of the bird flu situation is right now.

　　But having said that, we always have to be alert for the threat or the possibility that they may, when they jump species like from a chicken or another type of a fowl to a human, that they then become really efficient in spreading from person to person. We've not seen that thus far. Hopefully, we'll never see it, but we've even begun trying to develop vaccines against some of these avian type flu. So, no need to panic but don't just blow it off. We've got to keep our eye out on it.

　　HARI SREENIVASAN: All right. Dr. Anthony Fauci, thanks so much.

　　DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: Good to be with you.

1 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。

2 vaccinate   

vt.给…接种疫苗；种牛痘

参考例句：

• Local health officials then can plan the best times to vaccinate people.这样，当地的卫生官员就可以安排最佳时间给人们接种疫苗。
• Doctors vaccinate us so that we do not catch smallpox.医生给我们打预防针使我们不会得天花。

3 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？

4 epidemic   

n.流行病；盛行；adj.流行性的，流传极广的

参考例句：

• That kind of epidemic disease has long been stamped out.那种传染病早已绝迹。
• The authorities tried to localise the epidemic.当局试图把流行病限制在局部范围。

5 promising   

adj.有希望的，有前途的

参考例句：

• The results of the experiments are very promising.实验的结果充满了希望。
• We're trying to bring along one or two promising young swimmers.我们正设法培养出一两名有前途的年轻游泳选手。

6 allergy   

n.(因食物、药物等而引起的)过敏症

参考例句：

• He developed an allergy to pollen.他对花粉过敏。
• The patient had an allergy to penicillin.该患者对青霉素过敏。

7 hood   

n.头巾，兜帽，覆盖；v.罩上，以头巾覆盖

参考例句：

• She is wearing a red cloak with a hood.她穿着一件红色带兜帽的披风。
• The car hood was dented in.汽车的发动机罩已凹了进去。

8 vaccinating   

给…接种疫苗( vaccinate的现在分词 )； 注射疫苗，接种疫苗

参考例句：

• At first blush, vaccinating the wolves against rabies seems a simple solution. 乍一看来，为狼群注射防狂犬病疫苗是一种简单的办法。
• Also vaccinating children against misers (measles) has saved many lives. 还有，给儿童进行疫苗接种防止麻疹也挽救了许多生命。

9 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。

10 durable   

adj.持久的，耐久的

参考例句：

• This raincoat is made of very durable material.这件雨衣是用非常耐用的料子做的。
• They frequently require more major durable purchases.他们经常需要购买耐用消费品。

11 optimal   

adj.最适宜的；最理想的；最令人满意的

参考例句：

• What is the optimal mix of private and public property rights in natural resources?私人和国家的自然资源产权的最适宜的组合是什么？
• Optimal path planning is a key link for the sailing contest.帆船最优行驶路径规划是帆船比赛取胜的关键环节。

12 durability   

n.经久性，耐用性

参考例句：

• Nylons have the virtue of durability.尼龙丝袜有耐穿的优点。

13 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

14 culled   

v.挑选，剔除( cull的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The herd must be culled. 必须有选择地杀掉部分牧畜。 来自辞典例句
• The facts were culled from various sources. 这些事实是从各方收集到的。 来自辞典例句

15 influenza   

n.流行性感冒，流感

参考例句：

• They took steps to prevent the spread of influenza.他们采取措施
• Influenza is an infectious disease.流感是一种传染病。

16 fowl   

n.家禽，鸡，禽肉

参考例句：

• Fowl is not part of a traditional brunch.禽肉不是传统的早午餐的一部分。
• Since my heart attack,I've eaten more fish and fowl and less red meat.自从我患了心脏病后，我就多吃鱼肉和禽肉，少吃红色肉类。

17 efficiently   

adv.高效率地，有能力地

参考例句：

• The worker oils the machine to operate it more efficiently.工人给机器上油以使机器运转更有效。
• Local authorities have to learn to allocate resources efficiently.地方政府必须学会有效地分配资源。