VOA慢速英语2010年-Health Report - Prevention, Treatment

This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

Wednesday is December first, World AIDS Day. This year, experts are reporting more signs of success in halting the AIDS epidemic¹. The number of AIDS-related deaths and the number of new infections are both decreasing.

Michel Sidibe is the executive director of the joint² United Nations program known as UNAIDS.

MICHEL SIDIBE: "Today we can say with confidence and conviction that we have broken the trajectory³ of the AIDS pandemic."

The latest UNAIDS report says new HIV infections have fallen almost twenty percent in the last ten years. And there has been a similar drop in the last five years in the number of AIDS-related deaths.

An estimated thirty-three million people worldwide were living with HIV last year. Two and a half million were children. HIV is the virus that causes AIDS.

Africa south of the Sahara has the most deaths and new infections. But many of those countries have made important progress.

Worldwide estimates show that more than two and a half million people became newly infected with HIV in two thousand nine. At the same time, about one million eight hundred thousand people died from AIDS-related sicknesses.

A child with HIV is given medication by a caregiver in Durban, South Africa, Tuesday

Drug treatment to suppress the virus has expanded. One result has been fewer babies born infected by their mothers. Still, the report says ten million people are waiting for treatment.

UNAIDS officials also say not enough is being spent for prevention. They say prevention efforts are responsible for much of the progress.

More and more young people say they are following safer practices. Surveys find greater use of condoms and people in many countries say they have fewer sexual partners.

World Health Organization chief Margaret Chan called this year's AIDS report encouraging. But she noted⁴ that the populations most at risk are also those who have the least access to services. These populations include sex workers, drug users and homosexual men.

In other health news, a new study has found that one in every one hundred deaths in the world is caused by other people smoking.

Researchers found that more than six hundred thousand non-smokers died in two thousand four. They say the deaths were from diseases and infections caused by secondhand smoke, also known as passive smoking.

The study in the journal Lancet says one hundred sixty-five thousand of those tobacco victims were children.

And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver⁵. I'm Steve Ember.
 

1 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。

2 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

3 trajectory   

n.弹道，轨道

参考例句：

• It is not difficult to sketch the subsequent trajectory.很容易描绘出它们最终的轨迹。
• The path followed by a projectile is called its trajectory.抛物体所循的路径称为它的轨道。

4 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。

5 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。