VOA慢速英语 2008 0416a

This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

Researchers in China have reported on a rare human-to-human case of bird flu. They say it is likely that a twenty-four year old man in the eastern province of Jiangsu infected his father last December.

They believe it happened while the father cared for the son in a hospital. The son died. The father lived.

Government researchers say genetic¹ tests showed almost identical forms of the H5N1 virus in the two men. Ninety-one other people came in close contact with them but did not get infected.

The report appeared last week in the Lancet medical journal.

On April third, the World Health Organization said a family in Pakistan showed a high probability² of human-to-human infection in a case last year. In that case, an animal doctor was infected with the avian flu virus when he helped destroy diseased birds in Peshawar. His three brothers became infected later although they had no contact with diseased birds.

Gregory Hartl is a project leader in the W.H.O.’s Epidemic³ and Pandemic Alert⁴ and Response office in Geneva. He says experts can never confirm one hundred percent that human-to-human infection with the virus has taken place. But he says there seems to have been at least six cases, including the ones in Pakistan and China in two thousand seven.

Scientists worry that the virus might change over time into a form that passes easily among humans.

In other developments, Egypt reported its third death from H5N1 in the last two weeks. Health officials said a thirty year old woman got sick on April second. She was taken to a hospital seven days later. She was the twenty-second person to die from the virus in Egypt.
　

Health officials destroy birds on a farm in Muan, South Korea, to fight the spread of bird flu

South Korea this month reported new outbreaks in birds.

And the United States health secretary urged Indonesia to cooperate more with the World Health Organization to share virus samples. Mike Leavitt spoke⁵ Monday in Jakarta. He noted⁶ that many life-saving vaccines⁷ have resulted from international cooperation.

Indonesia has had the most deaths of any country from H5N1, more than one hundred people. But it wants the right to approve any drug company's use of virus samples from Indonesia. Indonesia also wants guarantees that poor countries would be able to get low-cost vaccines developed from their samples.

And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver⁸. I’m Faith Lapidus.

1 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。

2 probability   

n.可能性，可能发生的事，概率

参考例句：

• The probability that it will rain today is high.今天下雨的可能性很大。
• He must calculate the probability of failure.他必须计算一下失败的概率。

3 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。

4 alert   

adj.机警的，活泼的，机灵的；vt.使...警觉

参考例句：

• Drivers must be on the alert for traffic signals.驾驶员必须密切注意交通信号。
• The rabbIt'seems to be very alert all its life.兔子似乎一生都小心翼翼，十分警觉。

5 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

6 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。

7 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。

8 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。