VOA慢速英语2009年-Health Report - US to End HIV Travel Ban i

This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

In nineteen eighty-seven, H.I.V./AIDS joined a list of diseases that could keep a person out of the United States. The government later tried to cancel its decision. But Congress made the travel ban a part of immigration law. People with H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, could seek an exception, but that meant extra work.
　
Travelers show their documents to immigration officers at Los Angeles International Airport

Last year, Congress and President George W. Bush began the process of ending the travel ban. Now President Obama is finishing that process.

BARACK OBAMA: "We talk about reducing the stigma¹ of this disease, yet we have treated a visitor living with it as a threat. We lead the world when it comes to helping² stem the AIDS pandemic, yet we are one of only a dozen countries that still bar people with H.I.V. from entering our own country."

A final rule published Monday will end the travel ban effective January fourth. H.I.V. will no longer be a condition that can exclude people. And H.I.V. testing will no longer be required for those who need a medical examination for immigration purposes.

AIDS has killed more than twenty-five million people since the early nineteen eighties.

In September, there was news that a vaccine³ showed some ability to prevent H.I.V. infection in humans for the first time. The full results of the vaccine study were presented in late October at an international conference in Paris. They were also reported in the New England Journal of Medicine. The researchers confirmed that the study in Thailand produced only "modest" results.

The United States Army sponsored the vaccine trial. The study combined two vaccines⁴, using versions of H.I.V. common in Thailand. Neither vaccine alone had shown success in earlier studies.

Thai researchers tested the combination in more than sixteen thousand volunteers. Half of the volunteers got the vaccine. The others got a placebo⁵, an inactive substance. All were given condoms and counseling on AIDS prevention for three years. The study found thirty-one percent fewer cases of infection in the vaccine group than in the placebo group.

But critics said the findings could possibly have resulted from chance. The announcement in September was based on all sixteen thousand volunteers. Almost one-third of them, however, did not follow all the required steps in the study. Results just from those who did were similar to the larger group, but the influence of chance was more of a possibility.

Still, the researchers said the study produced enough valuable information to offer new hope for AIDS research.

And that's the VOA Special English Health Report. I'm Bob Doughty⁶.

 

1 stigma   

n.耻辱，污名；(花的)柱头

参考例句：

• Being an unmarried mother used to carry a social stigma.做未婚母亲在社会上曾是不光彩的事。
• The stigma of losing weighed heavily on the team.失败的耻辱让整个队伍压力沉重。

2 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

3 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。

4 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。

5 placebo   

n.安慰剂；宽慰话

参考例句：

• The placebo has been found to work with a lot of different cases.人们已发现安慰剂能在很多不同的病例中发挥作用。
• The placebo effect refers to all the observable behaviors caused by placebo.安慰剂效应是指由安慰剂所引起的可观察的行为。

6 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。