VOA慢速英语20060123a

DEVELOPMENT REPORT - New Efforts Aim to Get More H.I.V. Drugs to Poor CountriesBy Jill Moss¹

Broadcast: Monday, January 23, 2006

I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Development Report.

The fight against AIDS got some more help earlier this month. The Swiss drug manufacturer Roche and the Clinton Foundation announced separate efforts to provide H.I.V. drugs to poor nations.

Roche says it will provide drug companies in developing nations with technical assistance to make copies of a drug called saquinavir. Saquinavir is taken in combination with other medicines. It is used to treat H.I.V. patients with or without AIDS.




H.I.V. is the virus that develops into AIDS. Victims lose their ability to fight infections. For example, many people with AIDS die of tuberculosis².

Roche says it plans to start its technology transfer program in more than sixty nations, mostly in Africa and Asia. Officials say the countries represent about seventy percent of all people living with H.I.V. and AIDS. Medical experts say more than forty million people are infected around the world.

Roche says it will have a special team to deal with requests later this year. The company's chief, William Burns, says the drug maker³ wants to share its knowledge to help strengthen local drug manufacturers. Some of the team will be based in Africa.

The action announced by the Clinton Foundation involves two other H.I.V. medicines: efavirenz and abacavir. The foundation has negotiated agreements with drug makers⁴ to cut the cost of these two antiretroviral drugs by more than thirty percent. This will involve five companies in India and South Africa.

The Clinton Foundation says it has also secured agreements involving tests for H.I.V. Four companies have agreed to provide developing nations with testing supplies at half of what they cost now. The companies are in China, India, Israel and the United States.

Bill Clinton calls the agreements an important step in the fight against H.I.V. and AIDS. The former president says that together they will help fifty developing nations.

H.I.V. can be spread by sexual relations, or infected blood or blood products. The virus can pass between pregnant women and their babies, and between drug users who share injection needles.

Last year the world had an estimated three million AIDS-related deaths and five million new infections. Medicine can suppress H.I.V., but not prevent it or cure it.

This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. Read and listen to our reports at www.unsv.com. I'm Steve Ember.

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 tuberculosis   

n.结核病，肺结核

参考例句：

• People used to go to special health spring to recover from tuberculosis.人们常去温泉疗养胜地治疗肺结核。
• Tuberculosis is a curable disease.肺结核是一种可治愈的病。

3 maker   

n.制造者，制造商

参考例句：

• He is a trouble maker，You must be distant with him.他是个捣蛋鬼，你不要跟他在一起。
• A cabinet maker must be a master craftsman.家具木工必须是技艺高超的手艺人。

4 makers   

n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式）

参考例句：

• The makers of the product assured us that there had been no sacrifice of quality. 这一产品的制造商向我们保证说他们没有牺牲质量。
• The makers are about to launch out a new product. 制造商们马上要生产一种新产品。 来自《简明英汉词典》