VOA慢速英语20061024b

SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Experts Call for Continued Efforts to Protect Children Against Polio DangerBy Jerilyn Watson

Broadcast: Tuesday, October 24, 2006

VOICE ONE:

This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty¹.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Faith Lapidus. This week, we tell about efforts to defeat the disease polio. Polio is spreading again after almost disappearing.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Experts say hundreds of thousands of people could get polio unless the disease is stopped in areas where it has always been present. They also say political and financial support is needed to fight polio.


Maroufa, 4, receives polio vaccine² in Kabul, Afghanistan

Doctors advising the World Health Organization met recently in Geneva, Switzerland. They reported that Afghanistan, India, Nigeria and Pakistan have endemic polio. That means poliovirus is continually present there. The experts warned that this presence threatens almost two hundred countries now free of the virus. Polio spreads easily from person to person. It easily crosses national borders.

VOICE TWO:

Conference chairman Steve Cochi said the countries with endemic polio can defeat the disease. But Doctor Cochi said political leaders need to help. He noted³ progress in Afghanistan after Afghan President Hamid Karzai organized a polio advisory⁴ group. Conflict in southern Afghanistan has harmed efforts to provide children with anti-polio medicine called a vaccine.

About seventy percent of the world's polio cases are in Nigeria. Almost nine hundred new cases have been reported there this year. The new cases are mainly in northern Nigeria. Problems there helped delay the goal of ending the threat from polio by two thousand seven.

VOICE ONE:

False reports had been spreading in northern Nigeria. The reports said a campaign to provide polio vaccines⁵ was really a plot to harm Muslims. As a result, the vaccinations⁷ stopped for about a year. That was in two thousand three and two thousand four. Many new cases then developed.

Polio from Nigeria spread as far as Indonesia. For this reason, a special vaccination⁶ program took place in Nigeria last month.

In India, the number of polio cases has increased almost ten times compared to the same period last year. Poor areas of Uttar Pradesh Province are responsible for much of the increase. Pakistan has about the same number of cases this year as it did in the same period last year.

VOICE TWO:

Yagob Yousef Al-Mazrou is an advisory committee member and represents Saudi Arabia's Ministry⁸ of Health. He says his nation is concerned about visitors spreading the virus. Millions of people arrive in Saudi Arabia each year for the Islamic religious event called the Hajj.

Doctor Al-Mazrou said his nation now requires evidence of vaccination for visitors from polio-affected countries. Children from those countries are given polio vaccines at the Saudi border. This is true even if they had been vaccinated⁹ earlier.

VOICE ONE:

Robert Scott represented the Global Polio Eradication¹⁰ Initiative¹¹ at the conference. The group has been working against polio for almost twenty years. During that period, the world polio rate has fallen by more than ninety-nine percent.

Doctor Scott placed importance on the need for the international community to provide money for vaccination campaigns. The doctor is an official of Rotary¹² International, a service organization and Initiative member. Rotary has given millions of dollars to fight polio.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

In the nineteen nineties, it seemed that modern medicine might soon defeat polio. Health officials set two thousand as a target date for the end of new cases. But before anyone could celebrate, more cases were reported. Officials re-set the date for defeating polio to two thousand five. Then they delayed again, to two thousand seven. Still, the disease keeps spreading.

But polio fighters keep striking¹³ back. As part of that effort, the World Health Organization launched a campaign in eastern Africa in September. It was the largest such attempt ever made in several countries at once. More than three million children were protected against the disease within a few days.

VOICE ONE:

Prevention is important because antibiotic¹⁴ drugs cannot help after someone is infected. Antibiotics¹⁵ can kill only bacteria, not viruses.

Poliovirus spreads from person to person. Its victims often are young children. But adults also get polio. Many people are infected without knowing it. They may have just a higher than normal body temperature and pain in the throat. But polio sometimes attacks the central nervous system. In just hours, polio patients may not be able to stand or walk. And, some die.

VOICE TWO:

Children who received vaccines in the recent Africa campaign live along the borders of Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia. Some roads in eastern Africa were not passable. But health workers used horses and other animals to reach the children. The workers provided each child with two drops of the vaccine by mouth.

Almost one million children received the vaccine in Ethiopia. That nation reported thirty-seven polio cases since December of two thousand four. The children live in areas that share borders with Somalia and Kenya.

Finding all the children who needed the vaccine was difficult. Recent flooding in Ethiopia and Somalia displaced¹⁶ many people. Somalia and northern Kenya also have many communities of people who move from place to place.

VOICE ONE:

Until two thousand five, Somalia had not had any polio cases for three years. But then, two hundred fifteen people became sick with the disease. Officials say the virus came from Yemen.

Health workers attempted to reach more than one million five hundred thousand children on the Somali side of the Ethiopian border. Health conditions are poor in Somalia, which has no effective central government. Special efforts were made to include children in areas near the borders with Ethiopia and Kenya.

In northern Kenya, two hundred fifty thousand children were vaccinated. Kenya last week reported its first case of polio in more than twenty years. The patient is a three-year-old Somali girl born in a refugee¹⁷ camp in Kenya. She had received a polio vaccine and had never been in Somalia.

VOICE TWO:

The World Health Organization says many people gave their time so that all the children could be reached. Groups of women and young people helped. Religious leaders and teachers assisted members of governmental and non-governmental agencies.

The campaign was the first of three large campaigns for the Horn of Africa that the W.H.O. hopes to launch this year. At present, however, fifty million dollars is needed to pay for vaccinations in November and December. The organization says without this money, more children will be unable to walk without help. About five to ten percent of those who lose use of their arms or legs also lose their ability to breathe without support and die.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

The W.H.O. says the Global Polio Eradication Initiative is the largest public health campaign ever organized. Its main supporters include national governments and UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund. Another supporter is America's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Even with the recent cases of polio, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative has made a big difference. Eighteen years ago, one hundred twenty-five countries reported three hundred fifty thousand polio cases. This year, about one thousand two hundred people have been infected.

Wild poliovirus passes freely from person to person. It spreads through mouth fluids, waste material, and water systems. Another kind of polio is rare. That kind happens when unexpected genetic¹⁸ changes take place in the Oral Polio Vaccine.

VOICE TWO:

The success of the first polio vaccine was announced in nineteen fifty-five. American Jonas Salk and his team proved that a vaccine made from a killed virus could kill poliovirus. The Salk vaccine was given by injection. Polio rates decreased greatly in people who had been vaccinated.

Later, Albert Sabin used a live, but weakened poliovirus to build protection against the disease. That is the kind of vaccine used for years in huge campaigns in Africa and Asia. Experts say recent changes to the vaccine are improving it.

Today, people everywhere hope that anti-polio campaigners armed with vaccine will defeat polio at last.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. Brianna Blake was our producer. I'm Bob Doughty.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.

1 doughty   

adj.勇猛的，坚强的

参考例句：

• Most of successful men have the characteristics of contumacy and doughty.绝大多数成功人士都有共同的特质：脾气倔强，性格刚强。
• The doughty old man battled his illness with fierce determination.坚强的老人用巨大毅力与疾病作斗争。

2 vaccine   

n.牛痘苗，疫苗；adj.牛痘的，疫苗的

参考例句：

• The polio vaccine has saved millions of lives.脊髓灰质炎疫苗挽救了数以百万计的生命。
• She takes a vaccine against influenza every fall.她每年秋季接种流感疫苗。

3 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

4 advisory   

adj.劝告的，忠告的，顾问的，提供咨询

参考例句：

• I have worked in an advisory capacity with many hospitals.我曾在多家医院做过顾问工作。
• He was appointed to the advisory committee last month.他上个月获任命为顾问委员会委员。

5 vaccines   

疫苗，痘苗( vaccine的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His team are at the forefront of scientific research into vaccines. 他的小组处于疫苗科研的最前沿。
• The vaccines were kept cool in refrigerators. 疫苗放在冰箱中冷藏。

6 vaccination   

n.接种疫苗，种痘

参考例句：

• Vaccination is a preventive against smallpox.种痘是预防天花的方法。
• Doctors suggest getting a tetanus vaccination every ten years.医生建议每十年注射一次破伤风疫苗。

7 vaccinations   

n.种痘，接种( vaccination的名词复数 )；牛痘疤

参考例句：

• Vaccinations ensure one against diseases. 接种疫苗可以预防疾病。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I read some publicity about vaccinations while waiting my turn at the doctor's. 在医生那儿候诊时，我读了一些关于接种疫苗的宣传。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

9 vaccinated   

[医]已接种的，种痘的，接种过疫菌的

参考例句：

• I was vaccinated against tetanus. 我接种了破伤风疫苗。
• Were you vaccinated against smallpox as a child? 你小时候打过天花疫苗吗？

10 eradication   

n.根除

参考例句：

• The eradication of an established infestation is not easy. 根除昆虫蔓延是不容易的。
• This is often required for intelligent control and eradication. 这经常需要灵巧的控制与消除。

11 initiative   

n.主动性，首创精神，主动权（的行动），倡议

参考例句：

• He went to see the headmaster on his own initiative.他主动去看望校长。
• His employer had described him as lacking in initiative and drive.雇主说他缺乏进取心和干劲。

12 rotary   

adj.(运动等)旋转的；轮转的；转动的

参考例句：

• The central unit is a rotary drum.核心设备是一个旋转的滚筒。
• A rotary table helps to optimize the beam incidence angle.一张旋转的桌子有助于将光线影响之方式角最佳化。

13 striking   

adj.显著的，惹人注目的，容貌出众的

参考例句：

• There is a striking difference between Jane and Mary.简和玛丽之间有显著的差异。
• What is immediately striking is how resourceful the children are.最令人注目的是孩子们的机智聪明。

14 antibiotic   

adj.抗菌的；n.抗生素

参考例句：

• The doctor said that I should take some antibiotic.医生说我应该服些用抗生素。
• Antibiotic can be used against infection.抗菌素可以用来防止感染。

15 antibiotics   

n.（用作复数）抗生素；（用作单数）抗生物质的研究；抗生素，抗菌素( antibiotic的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• the discovery of antibiotics in the 20th century 20世纪抗生素的发现
• The doctor gave me a prescription for antibiotics. 医生给我开了抗生素。

16 displaced   

移动( displace的过去式和过去分词 )； 替换； 移走； 撤职

参考例句：

• Gradually factory workers have been displaced by machines. 工厂的工人已逐渐被机器取代。
• He was displaced by another young man. 他已被另一个年轻人顶替。

17 refugee   

n.难民，流亡者

参考例句：

• The refugee was condemned to a life of wandering.这个难民注定要过流浪的生活。
• The refugee is suffering for want of food and medical supplies.难民苦于缺少食物和医药用品。

18 genetic   

adj.遗传的，遗传学的

参考例句：

• It's very difficult to treat genetic diseases.遗传性疾病治疗起来很困难。
• Each daughter cell can receive a full complement of the genetic information.每个子细胞可以收到遗传信息的一个完全补偿物。