DEVELOPMENT REPORT - World 2002

DEVELOPMENT REPORT – November 4, 2002: World Health Report 2002

By Jill Moss¹

This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

The life expectancy² of people around the world could increase by five to ten years if action
against common health risks is taken. This is one of the findings in this year’s World
Health Report released recently by the World Health Organization. The report is called
“Reducing Risks, Promoting Life.
”

Researchers found that ten major threats to good health are common around the world. The
chief of the World Health Organization, Gro Harlem Brundtland, called them the ten
leading killers³. They include unsafe sex, poor nutrition, high blood pressure, use of
tobacco and alcohol, unsafe water and unclean living conditions. Also included are high
levels of dangerous fat in the blood, indoor smoke from solid fuels, a lack of iron in the
body and too much body weight, or obesity⁴. Together, these ten health risks make up forty
percent of the fifty-six-million deaths worldwide each year.

Doctor Brundtland called for reducing the ten main health risks by twenty-five percent within ten years. If this
were done, life expectancy in industrial countries could increase by ten years. In developing countries, it could
increase by five years.

Currently, the number of life years lost because of these health risks differs around the world. Doctor Brundtland
says the differences these health risks create between rich and poor nations are shocking. For example, about one-
hundred-seventy-million children in poor countries are underweight. They do not weigh enough because they do
not get enough food. However, more than one-thousand-million adults around the world are too fat. These people
are mostly in rich, industrial countries.

Doctor Brundtland warns that the cost of inaction is serious. For example, she says nine-million deaths a year
linked to smoking will be reported by two-thousand-twenty if steps are not taken soon. Currently, about five-
million people die each year from diseases related to smoking.

Doctor Brundtland says that AIDS and the H-I-V virus are having a huge effect on the length of life in Africa.
Currently, life expectancy at birth in southern Africa is forty-seven years. The W-H-O estimates that ninety-five
percent of H-I-V infections in Africa were caused by unsafe sex. She says there is an urgent need for sex
education and the use of condom devices to prevent the spread of H-I-V.

This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss [adapted from a VOA report by
Michael Drudge].

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1 moss   

n.苔，藓，地衣

参考例句：

• Moss grows on a rock.苔藓生在石头上。
• He was found asleep on a pillow of leaves and moss.有人看见他枕着树叶和苔藓睡着了。

2 expectancy   

n.期望，预期，（根据概率统计求得）预期数额

参考例句：

• Japanese people have a very high life expectancy.日本人的平均寿命非常长。
• The atomosphere of tense expectancy sobered everyone.这种期望的紧张气氛使每个人变得严肃起来。

3 killers   

凶手( killer的名词复数 )； 消灭…者； 致命物； 极难的事

参考例句：

• He remained steadfast in his determination to bring the killers to justice. 他要将杀人凶手绳之以法的决心一直没有动摇。
• They were professional killers who did in John. 杀死约翰的这些人是职业杀手。

4 obesity   

n.肥胖，肥大

参考例句：

• One effect of overeating may be obesity.吃得过多能导致肥胖。
• Sugar and fat can more easily lead to obesity than some other foods.糖和脂肪比其他食物更容易导致肥胖。