VOA常速英语2016--国际艾滋病会议将在埃塞俄比亚举行（在线收听）

国际艾滋病会议将在埃塞俄比亚举行

22.5 million of the world's 33 million AIDS sufferers are in Africa. So the conference opening December 4 is aimed at raising public awareness. Ethiopia's Health Minister Tewodros Adhanom calls the weeklong event an opportunity to share information about state-of-the-art approaches to prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted infections. Our main objective is really to learn from others. There will be scientific knowledge and best practices in HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment care and support, and other things we can learn from the world or the participants. We are really keen to learn, and we will have a chance to show to the world what we are doing. This biennial conference comes 30 years after the discovery of the AIDS virus. While the number of AIDS deaths has been steadily decreasing since 2004 as antiretroviral drugs become more commonly available, sub-Saharan Africa still bears an inordinate share of the global HIV burden. Tewodros says the conference will emphasize that the 22.5 million Africans with HIV/AIDS are people whose lives and deaths touch millions more. I told you the figures, these are not really numbers, they are people. Twenty-two million in Africa is really big, and the extent, the magnitude of death is really huge, and if there is real commitment, there is no reason we cannot show or maintain the commitment we had started. The International Conference on AIDS and sexually transmitted infections in Africa, known as ICASA, will be the biggest conference ever staged in Addis Ababa. The city's massive Millennium Hall, built five years ago for celebrations of the Ethiopian calendar year 2000, is being transformed into a convention center for the event. Officials say the facility will have a capacity of up to 35,000 people in 14 separate parallel sessions, making it one of Africa's largest convention centers.

全球3300万艾滋病患者中，有2.25千万来自非洲。而12月4日召开的会议旨在提升公众对艾滋病的意识。埃塞俄比亚卫生部部长特沃德罗斯·阿达诺姆称，这一长达一周的会议是个分享先进艾滋病防治手段的契机。我们的主要目标就是彼此学习。在会上，我们可以在其他参会人员的帮助下，学习并了解到艾滋病防治的知识和实践方法。我们真的很想多多学习，而且我们一定会有机会向世界展示现在所做的一切究竟意义何在。这场两年一次的会议在人类发现艾滋病30年后才诞生。自2004年以来，由于抗逆转录病毒药物的广泛使用，艾滋病死亡例已稳步减少。然而，撒哈拉以南的非洲地区仍有大量艾滋病病例。埃塞俄比亚卫生部部长称，此次会议将会着重强调非洲艾滋病患者的生死对其他地区的人民会有极大触动。虽然我告诉大家的是数字，但它们并非只是数字，数字的背后是鲜活的生命。

非洲2200万的数据不可小觑，艾滋病所造成的死亡案例很多。所以，如果我们作出庄严承诺了，就没有理由不履行承诺。国际艾滋病会议（ICASA）将会成为埃塞俄比亚首都亚的斯亚贝巴所举行过的最大型的会议。亚的斯亚贝巴五年前为埃塞俄比亚历年中的千禧年而建造的千禧年大厅，将为此次会议重新改造为会议中心。有关负责人称，改造后的会议中心共有14个平行会议厅，可容纳3.5万人，将成为非洲最大的会议中心之一。