SCIENCE REPORT - New Cold Drug

SCIENCE REPORT - January 2, 2002: New Cold Drug

By Nancy Steinbach
This is the VOA Special English Science Report.

American researchers say they have developed the first drug that can effectively treat adults suffering a viral
respiratory infection called the common cold.

A cold is an infection of the breathing system. About fifty percent of colds are caused by a group of viruses
known as picornaviruses (pa-CORN-a-viruses). These small particles spread from person to person through the
air. The virus first infects the tissues in the nose and throat. Signs of a cold include sore throat, discharge of fluids
from the nose, sneezing, coughing and difficulty breathing. The sinuses, ears and lungs may also become
infected. This can lead to serious conditions like bronchitis or pneumonia¹.

Medical experts say Americans suffer as many as one-thousand-million colds every year. The experts say colds
result in fifty-one-million visits to doctors each year. Yet no treatments are effective against the picornavirus.

Researchers at the ViroPharma company in Exton, Pennsylvania say they have developed such a drug. It is called
pleconaril (pla-CON-ah -rill). The researchers say the drug attacks the picornavirus. It interferes² with the infection
process and prevents the virus from reproducing³.

Researchers at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville studied the drug. They reported the results at an
infectious⁴ disease conference in Chicago, Illinois. They said pleconaril reduces the length and severity of a cold.

One study involved more than two-thousand people with colds who were divided into two groups. One group
took four-hundred milligrams of pleconaril three times a day for five days. The other group took an inactive
substance. Sixty-five percent of those in the study had a cold caused by a picornavirus.

The people infected with the picornavirus who took pleconaril suffered from the cold for six days. The others
who took the inactive substance suffered for seven days. The researchers said the drug made people feel better
sooner when the cold was caused by a picornavirus. They also said the drug began to ease the signs of the cold
within one day. And it stopped the discharge of nasal fluids one day sooner than usual.

The United States Food and Drug Administration is examining the research on pleconaril. Officials at
ViroPharma say they expect the drug to be approved later this year.

This VOA Special English Science Report was written by Nancy Steinbach.

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1 pneumonia   

n.肺炎

参考例句：

• Cage was struck with pneumonia in her youth.凯奇年轻时得过肺炎。
• Pneumonia carried him off last week.肺炎上星期夺去了他的生命。

2 interferes   

vi. 妨碍，冲突，干涉

参考例句：

• The noise interferes with my work. 这噪音妨碍我的工作。
• That interferes with my plan. 那干扰了我的计划。

3 reproducing   

复制( reproduce的现在分词 )； 重现； 再版； 生殖

参考例句：

• Mind has become self-reproducing through man's capacity to transmit experience and its products cumulatively. 通过传递生活经验和积累创造的产品，人类的智慧在不断地进行着自我丰富。
• Spores form a lipid membrane during the process of reproducing. 孢于在生殖过程中形成类脂膜。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 预防生物武器

4 infectious   

adj.传染的，有传染性的，有感染力的

参考例句：

• Influenza is an infectious disease.流感是一种传染病。
• What an infectious laugh she has!她的笑声多么具有感染力啊！