【英语语言学习】巴基斯坦小儿麻痹症

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

And as we've been reporting this week, Pakistan is one of the last places in the world where children are still getting polio. Vaccine¹ programs face intense and sometimes violent opposition². Of course it's crucial for health workers to convince parents to let their children receive a vaccine for polio, just like it would be in any country. So a team of Harvard researchers recently did a poll to find out if parents in Pakistan are part of the problem. NPR's Nurith Aizenman reports that the results stunned³ those researchers.

NURITH AIZENMAN, BYLINE⁴: Imagine you're a parent in northwest Pakistan. You live in a remote village - think mud huts on mountaintops - and every few weeks, some strangers carrying vials of an odd liquid come knocking on your door.

SONA BARI: Frankly⁵, if someone came to my house and said, you don't know me from Adam, but I'd like to vaccinate⁶ your child, I wouldn't let them.

AIZENMAN: That's Sona Bari of the World Health Organization, a key player in a decades long campaign to stamp out polio. And yet that effort's success depends on these parents in Pakistan saying, yes. The weirdness⁷ of strangers showing up at your door isn't the only hurdle⁸. In Pakistan's Northwest tribal⁹ areas, where most of the polio cases are found, parents face a lot of pressure to say no. I'm talking about the Taliban.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

CROWD: (Chanting) USA, USA.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN 1: Osama bin¹⁰ Laden¹¹ is dead.

AIZENMAN: Remember in 2011 when U.S. forces tracked down and killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. Well, it soon came out that they had used a vaccination¹² campaign as cover during the hunt. Now, it was for hepatitis not polio. Still, the Taliban was furious. Here's Sherine Guirguis of UNICEF which co-sponsored the poll with Harvard.

SHERINE GUIRGUIS: There have been health worker attacks and there have been bans on polio campaigns for two years now. So there's this climate that we're working in.

AIZENMAN: More than 60 polio workers have been killed. And the Taliban still outright¹³ bans vaccinators from two areas where they have a lot control. The result of those bans, a surge in polio in that region, more than 50 kids paralyzed just this year. The message to parents from all this, don't even think of opening your door for a vaccinator¹⁴. And it's not just the Taliban. Across Pakistan, the revelation about the CIA's ploy¹⁵ created suspicion about what vaccinators are really up to.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN 2: (Sindhi spoken).

AIZENMAN: This is a preacher all the way in the Southwest of Pakistan. He's telling his congregation that polio vaccination program, its run by foreigners who are out to sterilize¹⁶ Muslim children. And UNICEF's Sherine Guirguis said that the pollsters they sent, they found that people have heard a lot of rumors¹⁷ like this.

GUIRGUIS: The vaccine is not halal, for example, or that it's not made with ingredients that they feel comfortable with.

AIZENMAN: Or worse, the vaccine gives your kids AIDS. On the plus side nationwide, only 1 in 10 parents thought the rumors might be true. And even in the Northwest tribal areas, only a third thought there might be something to the tales. But researchers say these rumors can still be a problem. Gillian SteelFisher of Harvard ran the poll.

GILLIAN STEELFISHER: Peopled don't necessarily have to please them in full, but you worry about that kind of atmosphere of misunderstanding about the vaccine.

AIZENMAN: That's because of another challenge facing the polio eradication¹⁸ effort. With other vaccine programs, it's enough to reach a good majority of kids. But when it comes to polio, health workers are trying to wipe this disease off the planet. So UNICEF's Sherine Guirguis says even reaching say 75 percent of kids isn't good enough.

GUIRGUIS: Polio's 100 percent program. You need to find every child living in the most far-flung area, living in the most conflict-affected area, living in the hardest-to-reach area.

AIZENMAN: And you don't just need to reach them once or even twice or even three times; you need to convince parents to let you vaccinate their child at least four times in a single year. That's what it takes to get full immunity¹⁹ with this vaccine. And when you keep showing up, parents might start to get exasperated²⁰. Here's the World Health Organization's Sona Bari.

BARI: So this is one of the few services they're seeing come to their door for free, and yet it's coming over and over, which is something that's hard for them to understand.

AIZENMAN: See, polio is a big priority for the international community, but it's become rare enough that in Northwest Pakistan a lot of these parents haven't ever seen it. It's not really on their minds. Harvard's Gillian SteelFisher says they brought up a lot of other concerns.

STEELFISHER: They're facing the most fundamental challenges, things like clean water.

AIZENMAN: SteelFisher's team also found that a lot of parents don't think polio is that serious, that the paralysis²¹ it causes is curable - it isn't. And when they ask parents - does your child have to take the vaccine every time it's offered? - a lot of parents said, yes, always.

STEELFISHER: But we also had a sizable share of parents who said, sometimes, not necessarily every time.

AIZENMAN: And yet for all of these obstacles, when the pollsters asked parents in the Northwest tribal areas the central question - the question that was most important to their poll - if a health worker came to your door, did you let them vaccinate your child? - practically every parent 95 percent said yes. Nurith Aizenman, NPR News.

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 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

3 stunned   

adj. 震惊的，惊讶的 动词stun的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• The fall stunned me for a moment. 那一下摔得我昏迷了片刻。
• The leaders of the Kopper Company were then stunned speechless. 科伯公司的领导们当时被惊得目瞪口呆。

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 frankly   

adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说

参考例句：

• To speak frankly, I don't like the idea at all.老实说，我一点也不赞成这个主意。
• Frankly speaking, I'm not opposed to reform.坦率地说，我不反对改革。

6 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。

7 weirdness   

n.古怪，离奇，不可思议

参考例句：

• The weirdness of the city by night held her attention. 夜间城市的古怪景象吸引了她的注意力。
• But that's not the end of the weirdness feasible in evolutionary systems. 然而这还不是进化系统居然可行的最怪异的地方呐。

8 hurdle   

n.跳栏，栏架；障碍，困难；vi.进行跨栏赛

参考例句：

• The weather will be the biggest hurdle so I have to be ready.天气将会是最大的障碍，所以我必须要作好准备。
• She clocked 11.6 seconds for the 80 metre hurdle.八十米跳栏赛跑她跑了十一秒六。

9 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。

10 bin   

n.箱柜；vt.放入箱内；[计算机] DOS文件名:二进制目标文件

参考例句：

• He emptied several bags of rice into a bin.他把几袋米倒进大箱里。
• He threw the empty bottles in the bin.他把空瓶子扔进垃圾箱。

11 laden   

adj.装满了的；充满了的；负了重担的；苦恼的

参考例句：

• He is laden with heavy responsibility.他肩负重任。
• Dragging the fully laden boat across the sand dunes was no mean feat.将满载货物的船拖过沙丘是一件了不起的事。

12 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。

13 outright   

adv.坦率地；彻底地；立即；adj.无疑的；彻底的

参考例句：

• If you have a complaint you should tell me outright.如果你有不满意的事，你应该直率地对我说。
• You should persuade her to marry you outright.你应该彻底劝服她嫁给你。

14 vaccinator   

牛痘接种员，种痘刀

参考例句：

15 ploy   

n.花招，手段

参考例句：

• I think this is just a government ploy to deceive the public.我认为这只是政府欺骗公众的手段。
• Christmas should be a time of excitement and wonder,not a cynical marketing ploy.圣诞节应该是兴奋和美妙的时刻，而不该是一种肆无忌惮的营销策略。

16 sterilize   

vt.使不结果实；使绝育；使无效；杀菌，消毒

参考例句：

• Antiseptic is used to sterilize the skin before giving an injection.杀菌剂被用于在注射前给皮肤消毒。
• He pricks the blister on his heel with a sterilize needle.他用一根消过毒的针扎破他脚后跟上的水泡。

17 rumors   

n.传闻( rumor的名词复数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷v.传闻( rumor的第三人称单数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷

参考例句：

• Rumors have it that the school was burned down. 有谣言说学校给烧掉了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Rumors of a revolt were afloat. 叛变的谣言四起。 来自《简明英汉词典》

18 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。

19 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。

20 exasperated   

adj.恼怒的

参考例句：

• We were exasperated at his ill behaviour. 我们对他的恶劣行为感到非常恼怒。
• Constant interruption of his work exasperated him. 对他工作不断的干扰使他恼怒。

21 paralysis   

n.麻痹(症)；瘫痪(症)

参考例句：

• The paralysis affects his right leg and he can only walk with difficulty.他右腿瘫痪步履维艰。
• The paralysis affects his right leg and he can only walk with difficulty.他右腿瘫痪步履维艰。