VOA慢速英语 2008 1124a

This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

Bacterial¹ meningitis must be treated with antibiotics² as soon as possible or the infection can cause hearing loss and brain damage. It can also kill.
　
File photo of a girl being vaccinated⁴ against meningitis at a medical center in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

The world's largest recorded outbreak took place along Africa's so-called meningitis belt in nineteen ninety-six and 'ninety-seven. More than two hundred fifty thousand people got sick. Twenty-five thousand of them died. This area where outbreaks take place from time to time extends from Senegal in the west to Ethiopia in the east.

Leaders of nations along the meningitis belt agreed in September to support a campaign to protect their populations with a new vaccine⁵. The hope is to immunize two hundred fifty million people by two thousand fifteen.

The World Health Organization will provide technical aid with the new vaccine. The program will also get help from weather experts. One of the partners in the effort is the National Center for Atmospheric⁶ Research, in the American state of Colorado.

The center will make long-term weather predictions along the meningitis belt. Local health officials can then plan the best times to vaccinate³ people. The disease often strikes during dry, dusty weather.

One possible reason is that dust can affect the breathing system and people may be more open to infection. Another theory is that people may stay in their homes more during the dry season, making it easier to catch meningitis from others. The epidemics⁸ usually stop when the summer rainy season begins.

Weather experts will provide fourteen-day forecasts of atmospheric conditions. The weather program will start in Ghana in two thousand nine.

The center in Colorado is managed by a group known as UCAR, the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. Rajul Pandya, director of UCAR’s Community Building Program, says vaccine supplies are limited. So it is important to identify areas where the rainy season is beginning.

That way the vaccine could be given to people in the remaining dry areas -- and not given in areas where rains will stop an epidemic⁷.

Rajul Pandya says Ghana was chosen because of good cooperation and the country's history of meningitis epidemics. He says that in the last ten years, better computers and observation methods have greatly improved the ability to predict the coming of a rainy season.

And that’s the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jerilyn Watson.

1 bacterial   

a.细菌的

参考例句：

• Bacterial reproduction is accelerated in weightless space. 在失重的空间，细菌繁殖加快了。
• Brain lesions can be caused by bacterial infections. 大脑损伤可能由细菌感染引起。

2 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。

3 vaccinate   

vt.给…接种疫苗；种牛痘

参考例句：

• Local health officials then can plan the best times to vaccinate people.这样，当地的卫生官员就可以安排最佳时间给人们接种疫苗。
• Doctors vaccinate us so that we do not catch smallpox.医生给我们打预防针使我们不会得天花。

4 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？

5 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。

6 atmospheric   

adj.大气的，空气的；大气层的；大气所引起的

参考例句：

• Sea surface temperatures and atmospheric circulation are strongly coupled.海洋表面温度与大气环流是密切相关的。
• Clouds return radiant energy to the surface primarily via the atmospheric window.云主要通过大气窗区向地表辐射能量。

7 epidemic   

n.流行病；盛行；adj.流行性的，流传极广的

参考例句：

• That kind of epidemic disease has long been stamped out.那种传染病早已绝迹。
• The authorities tried to localise the epidemic.当局试图把流行病限制在局部范围。

8 epidemics   

n．流行病

参考例句：

• Reliance upon natural epidemics may be both time-consuming and misleading. 依靠天然的流行既浪费时间，又会引入歧途。
• The antibiotic epidemics usually start stop when the summer rainy season begins. 传染病通常会在夏天的雨季停止传播。