2006年VOA标准英语-Effort to Combat Bird Flu Detailed to US C

（单词翻译）

By Peter Fedynsky
Washington, DC
03 March 2006
 
watch Combating Bird Flu
 

Migratory¹ birds  
  
Last year, avian flu was confined to four countries in Asia.  Today, the virus is reported in 33 nations on three continents and has killed 94 people.  But even more troubling is the possibility that the virus might mutate and create a global pandemic that could claim the lives of millions.  On Thursday, leading American health officials told a Congressional subcommittee about steps being taken to help prevent such a deadly outcome. 

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Hope is not a strategy.  A threat anywhere is a threat everywhere.  We must assume a worst-case scenario².  These slogans expressed by participants of a House Foreign Operations subcommittee hearing (on Thursday) summarized the pervasive³ and imminent⁴ danger posed by a virus spread by migrating birds.  
 

Anthony Fauci heads the National Institute of Allergy⁵ and Infectious Diseases  
  
Dr. Anthony Fauci, who heads the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said that international cooperation is needed to track the evolution of the bird flu virus so that scientists can quickly create a vaccine⁶ in case a deadly mutation⁷ emerges.

"We need to know that so that when we have our vaccine plans for a vaccine that would be beneficial not only to the United States but to people globally, we need to have that openness and transparency.  Again, that is something that is getting better, but it is not exactly where we want it to be."

However, a recent protest by Egyptian poultry⁸ farmers shows that openness and transparency do not serve the immediate⁹ interests of people whose livelihood¹⁰ depends on having birds to sell.  The demonstration¹¹ came in response to a government decision to cull¹² Egypt's bird population in response to a local bird flu outbreak.  

Congresswoman Nita Lowey   
  
Congresswoman Nita Lowey, a New York Democrat¹³, noted¹⁴ that financial incentives¹⁵ are needed to overcome the tendency farmers have to conceal¹⁶ outbreaks.

"There has been no concerted effort, or at least no successful effort, to create an international financing mechanism¹⁷ to compensate¹⁸ farmers -- both commercial and subsistence -- for losses due to bird culling¹⁹."

More than 50 percent of the 170 people infected so far with bird flu have died.  All victims are believed to have had direct contact with infected birds.  This makes culling a dangerous activity.  To minimize the risk, the United States has distributed 20,000 pieces of protective clothing in Southeast Asia, Africa, the Caucasus and other parts of the world.  

Kent Hill, holding up packet of protective clothing  
  
Kent Hill, of the U.S. Agency for International Development, says another one-and-half-million packets are on order. "This kind of packet of materials would include -- even though it's a small packet -- all sorts of things, including the gloves, the masks, the suits, the goggles²⁰, disinfectants, etc."

The hearing underscored that bird flu is not likely to simply disappear.  And the participants said it is imperative²¹ that all outbreaks of the virus be reported immediately.