环球英语 — 128：Stopping Guinea Worm Disease

　　Voice 1
Thank you for joining us for today’s Spotlight¹. I’m Rebekah Schipper
Voice 2
And I’m Joshua Leo. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand no matter where in the world they live.
Voice 1
Hyacinth Igelle is a farmer. He lives in Ogi, a village in Nigeria. The people in the village do not have very much money, but they work very hard. Recently, Mr. Igelle has not been able to work. His hand hurts very badly. Mr. Igelle has a painful disease caused by a parasite², an organism living in his body. The parasite is called the guinea worm.
Today’s Spotlight is on this painful disease, and how people are trying to stop it from spreading.
Voice 2
In the village of Ogi there is a building made of dirt. The building is called the Guinea Worm Containment³ Center. Recently, Mr. Igelle stayed here with three [3] other patients. Workers give the patients containers of water to put their arms and legs in. Workers also give the patients three meals a day. This keeps them from working in the farm fields, and spreading the disease. You see, the disease is spread by putting an infected area of the body into drinking water.
Voice 1
The guinea worm begins life as a larva. The larvae⁴ are very small. They live in water with another small organism, the water flea⁵. Water fleas⁶ eat the guinea worm larvae. But the larvae infect the fleas. When a person gathers drinking water, he also gathers the infected fleas. If he does not treat the water, and make it clean, the fleas enter his body. When the person’s body breaks down the flea, the guinea worm larvae are released. The larvae mate inside his body.
Voice 2
The male worm dies after mating, but the female worm stays in the body. The worm grows inside the person’s body. The female worm is long, thin and white. It can grow up to a meter long inside a person’s body! The worm usually moves to the lower parts of a person’s body. About a year later, the full grown female worm tries to leave the person’s body. It does this by releasing acid, a damaging chemical. This creates a blister⁷, or wound, on the person’s body. The worm comes through the skin through this blister
Voice 1
Removing a worm from a person’s body is a long painful process. A person cannot remove the worm when it first comes through the skin. Since the worm is so long, it must be taken out slowly. If the worm breaks, the remaining part of the worm may cause a bad infection. The person must wrap the worm around a stick and pull it out a little bit every day. This may take weeks or even months to do. This is what happened to Mr. Igelle. The worm made his hand hurt very badly.
Voice 3
“The pain is like if you cut someone with a knife. It is like fire. It moves slowly, but you feel it even into your heart.”
Voice 2
The worm has begun to come out through Mr. Igelle’s skin. The guinea worm has caused his hand to grow larger. He is unable to hold tools to farm his field. The wound is too painful. The worm uses this pain to help it release its larvae. The pain makes Mr. Igelle want to put the wound in water. This reduces his pain. But when the worm reaches water, it releases a white cloud of larvae. This is how the larvae enter the drinking water of villages.
Voice 1
Many communities have suffered from Guinea worm disease for a very long time. But for the past twenty [20] years, communities in Africa and Asia have been fighting the Guinea worm. And they are winning the fight. Guinea worm disease may be the first disease since smallpox⁸ to be completely stopped.
Voice 2
Jimmy Carter, former president of the United States decided⁹ to lead the fight against the Guinea worm. His group raised money to help educate and treat people living in areas affected¹⁰ by Guinea worm disease. The group also organized people to treat infected water supplies all over the world.
Voice 1
Before the work of the Carter Center, Guinea worm was a problem through many countries in Central Africa and Asia. Today, half of those countries are Guinea worm free! One of the countries that still suffers from Guinea worm is Nigeria, where Mr. Igelle lives. Jacob Ogebe, a worker from the Carter Center is working in Mr. Igelle’s village.
Voice 2
Mr. Ogebe teaches the Nigerian villagers how to avoid infection from the Guinea worm. He believes education is the most important part in the fight against Guinea worms. Avoiding Guinea worm larvae can be easy. The infected water fleas come from drinking water. People just have to pour the water through a filter cloth. The cloth stops the infected fleas.
Voice 1
Avoiding the water fleas can be easy. But the Carter Center also wants to stop the Guinea worm from living in drinking water. Carter Center workers do this in two ways. First, they educate people about the problem of putting infected arms and legs in drinking water. This prevents the worms from entering the water. The second way is by adding a pesticide¹¹ to the water. This chemical pesticide kills only the small organisms that carry the Guinea worm larvae. The fish, plants and other animals living in the water are safe. The pesticide makes the water safe for people to drink.
Voice 2
But Mr. Ogebe had some difficulty in some areas of Nigeria. To stop the Guinea worm, he must treat all the water in the area. But some villagers did not want him adding chemicals to some of their ponds, or small lakes. The villagers think that some ponds are special. They believe their ancestor’s spirits live in the water. Some villagers would not let Mr. Ogebe add the pesticide to the water. They even tried to hide some of the ponds.
Voice 1
Mr. Ogebe talked and worked with village officials. He explained how important it was to treat the water. After some time, the village agreed to let workers treat the water. The village of Ogi will soon be free from the Guinea worm.
Voice 2
Communities in many countries have worked very hard to destroy the Guinea worm. Officials from the Carter Center think that in five [5] years Guinea worm will no longer be a problem. Today, there are only nine [9] countries that still suffer from this disease.
Voice 1
Stopping a disease takes a lot of effort. It takes cooperation, communication, and education. People in the villages work together to prevent water from becoming infected. Local workers from the Carter Center have worked with villagers to educate them about the disease. And Carter Center officials have raised money to pay for research and tools for villages. Fighting a disease takes many people working together. And in this fight, everyone wins.
 

1 spotlight   

n.公众注意的中心，聚光灯，探照灯，视听，注意，醒目

参考例句：

• This week the spotlight is on the world of fashion.本周引人瞩目的是时装界。
• The spotlight followed her round the stage.聚光灯的光圈随着她在舞台上转。

2 parasite   

n.寄生虫；寄生菌；食客

参考例句：

• The lazy man was a parasite on his family.那懒汉是家里的寄生虫。
• I don't want to be a parasite.I must earn my own way in life.我不想做寄生虫，我要自己养活自己。

3 containment   

n.阻止，遏制；容量

参考例句：

• Your list might include such things as cost containment,quality,or customer satisfaction.你的清单上应列有诸如成本控制、产品质量、客户满意程度等内容。
• Insularity and self-containment,it is argued,go hand in hand.他们争论说，心胸狭窄和自我封闭是并存的。

4 larvae   

n.幼虫

参考例句：

• Larvae are parasitic on sheep.幼虫寄生在绵羊的身上。
• The larvae prey upon small aphids.这种幼虫以小蚜虫为食。

5 flea   

n.跳蚤

参考例句：

• I'll put a flea in his ear if he bothers me once more.如果他再来打扰的话，我就要对他不客气了。
• Hunter has an interest in prowling around a flea market.亨特对逛跳蚤市场很感兴趣。

6 fleas   

n.跳蚤( flea的名词复数 )；爱财如命；没好气地（拒绝某人的要求）

参考例句：

• The dog has fleas. 这条狗有跳蚤。
• Nothing must be done hastily but killing of fleas. 除非要捉跳蚤，做事不可匆忙。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 blister   

n.水疱；(油漆等的)气泡；v.(使)起泡

参考例句：

• I got a huge blister on my foot and I couldn't run any farther.我脚上长了一个大水泡，没办法继续跑。
• I have a blister on my heel because my shoe is too tight.鞋子太紧了，我脚后跟起了个泡。

8 smallpox   

n.天花

参考例句：

• In 1742 he suffered a fatal attack of smallpox.1742年，他染上了致命的天花。
• Were you vaccinated against smallpox as a child?你小时候打过天花疫苗吗？

9 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

10 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。

11 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。