【英语语言学习】抵抗脊髓灰质炎病毒的侵害

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

 

As we near the end of 2013, NPR is taking a look at the numbers that tell the story of this past year; numbers that if you really understand them, can give insight into the world we're living in right now. Over the next two weeks, you'll hear the stories behind numbers ranging from zero to a trillion. This morning, our number of the year is 223. That is the lowest number of cases of polio ever recorded in the world. And 2013 was on track for an even lower number on the road to complete eradication¹ of the virus.

 

But this was a year when polio pushed back. The virus reappeared in Somalia and Syria. It showed up in sewer² systems in Israel. It spilled out of Nigeria into Cameroon. Pakistan saw a spike³ in cases, as well.

 

Even so, NPR's Jason Beaubien reports global health officials are still confident polio can be defeated, and soon.

 

JASON BEAUBIEN, BYLINE⁴: Global health officials could be forgiven for thinking that 2013 was going to be the year, the year when they'd finally stop polio in its tracks. Earlier campaigns had predicted that the virus could be banished⁵ by the year 2000, but that obviously didn't happen.

 

SONA BARI: I think I'll start with the bad news.

 

BEAUBIEN: Sona Bari, with the World Health Organization in Geneva, says yes, there were disappointments in 2013.

 

BARI: If you look just at the number of cases, of course, we have a large rise in cases over 2012 to 2013. More than 70 percent rise in cases. We have eight countries reporting polio as opposed to four last year at this time.

 

BEAUBIEN: Polio had hit a historical low in 2012, with only 223 cases reported worldwide. New outbreaks this year in the Horn of Africa and Syria surpassed that all by themselves. So how much of a setback⁶ is this to the decades-long, multi-billion dollar polio eradication effort?

 

BARI: I think it's a huge setback when your child has been paralyzed for life. When you live in a country like Somalia or Syria, where possibly you're in a conflict-affected situation. This is the last thing you need. This is the last thing any parent needs. From a global polio eradication perspective, these are things that are unfortunate spillovers until endemic polio is stopped in the three remaining countries.

 

BEAUBIEN: The three remaining endemic countries: Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria; the three countries on Earth where polio transmission has never been stopped. There was some progress in these places this year. The number of cases in both Afghanistan and Nigeria fell significantly. Pakistan, on the other hand, saw things go in the opposite direction. In addition, militants⁷ have made it impossible for vaccinators to immunize children in some tribal⁸ areas in the north of the country.

 

But despite the overall rise in polio cases this year, Bari says there's been progress on several fronts.

 

BARI: For the first time in history, we have only one type of polio. All these cases are Polio Type One, and this has never happened before. We haven't seen Type Three for over a year now.

 

BEAUBIEN: Not to get too technical, but there are three strains of the polio virus - each requiring a different vaccine⁹. Type Two was last seen in 1999. This year, Type Three dropped off the map, leaving just Type One Polio for public health officials to contend with.

 

Michael Klag, the dean of the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, says polio eradication is finally within reach.

 

MICHAEL KLAG: If you look at where we are, it's incredible what we've accomplished¹⁰ and we're almost there. We cannot stop now.

 

BEAUBIEN: If polio is wiped out, it would be only the second human disease ever eradicated¹².

 

KLAG: We know that at the very end of any campaign like this, the last few countries, the last few cases are always much, much harder than the preceding 80, 90 percent.

 

BEAUBIEN: So far, billions of dollars have been spent in the drive to eradicate¹¹ polio. The expectation is that it will take billions more to stomp¹³ out the last few cases and ensure that polio doesn't stage a comeback. The challenge now is to sustain the political will for such a massive global campaign all the way to the end.

 

Last year, William Muraskin, a professor of urban studies at City University of New York, came out with a book called, "Polio Eradication and its Discontents." He calls the whole polio eradication movement a failure, driven by the egos¹⁴ of Western health officials, that's consuming resources that could be better used elsewhere. Muraskin argues that the world would be better off trying to contain polio at low levels, and focus on other simpler health challenges.

 

WILLIAM MURASKIN: Putting money into routine immunization systems, that's not attractive. That's boring. And no one is going to get a statue for strengthening routine immunization systems.

 

BEAUBIEN: So far, Muraskin is an outlier in a sea of voices pushing to stamp out polio once and for all. Polio eradication campaigns however, do sap scarce resources in places like Nigeria and Pakistan. And if the polio eradication effort drags on indefinitely, more critics of the strategy are likely to come forward.

 

Jason Beaubien, NPR News.

 

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1 eradication   

n.根除

参考例句：

• The eradication of an established infestation is not easy. 根除昆虫蔓延是不容易的。
• This is often required for intelligent control and eradication. 这经常需要灵巧的控制与消除。

2 sewer   

n.排水沟，下水道

参考例句：

• They are tearing up the street to repair a sewer. 他们正挖开马路修下水道。
• The boy kicked a stone into the sewer. 那个男孩把一石子踢进了下水道。

3 spike   

n.长钉，钉鞋；v.以大钉钉牢，使...失效

参考例句：

• The spike pierced the receipts and held them in order.那个钉子穿过那些收据并使之按顺序排列。
• They'll do anything to spike the guns of the opposition.他们会使出各种手段来挫败对手。

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 banished   

v.放逐，驱逐( banish的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He was banished to Australia, where he died five years later. 他被流放到澳大利亚，五年后在那里去世。
• He was banished to an uninhabited island for a year. 他被放逐到一个无人居住的荒岛一年。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 setback   

n.退步，挫折，挫败

参考例句：

• Since that time there has never been any setback in his career.从那时起他在事业上一直没有遇到周折。
• She views every minor setback as a disaster.她把每个较小的挫折都看成重大灾难。

7 militants   

激进分子，好斗分子( militant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The militants have been sporadically fighting the government for years. 几年来，反叛分子一直对政府实施零星的战斗。
• Despite the onslaught, Palestinian militants managed to fire off rockets. 尽管如此，巴勒斯坦的激进分子仍然发射导弹。

8 tribal   

adj.部族的，种族的

参考例句：

• He became skilled in several tribal lingoes.他精通几种部族的语言。
• The country was torn apart by fierce tribal hostilities.那个国家被部落间的激烈冲突弄得四分五裂。

9 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。

10 accomplished   

adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的

参考例句：

• Thanks to your help,we accomplished the task ahead of schedule.亏得你们帮忙,我们才提前完成了任务。
• Removal of excess heat is accomplished by means of a radiator.通过散热器完成多余热量的排出。

11 eradicate   

v.根除，消灭，杜绝

参考例句：

• These insects are very difficult to eradicate.这些昆虫很难根除。
• They are already battling to eradicate illnesses such as malaria and tetanus.他们已经在努力消灭疟疾、破伤风等疾病。

12 eradicated   

画着根的

参考例句：

• Polio has been virtually eradicated in Brazil. 在巴西脊髓灰质炎实际上已经根除。
• The disease has been eradicated from the world. 这种疾病已在全世界得到根除。

13 stomp   

v.跺（脚），重踩，重踏

参考例句：

• 3.And you go to france, and you go to stomp! 你去法国，你去看跺脚舞！
• 4.How hard did she stomp? 她跺得有多狠？

14 egos   

自我，自尊，自负( ego的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Their egos are so easily bruised. 他们的自尊心很容易受到伤害。
• The belief in it issues from the puerile egos of inferior men. 这种信仰是下等人幼稚的自私意识中产生的。