VOA慢速英语2012 EXPLORATIONS - International AIDS Conference Returns to Washington After 22 Years

 

EXPLORATIONS - International AIDS Conference Returns to Washington After 22 Years

MARIO RITTER: Welcome to the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. I’m Mario Ritter. The International AIDS Conference is the world’s top event for people working on the issue of HIV, for those living with HIV, and for those affected¹ by it. The conference is held every two years. But this year’s event is special. It is the first time the United States has held the International AIDS Conference in twenty-two years.

The International AIDS Society organizes the conference, also called AIDS 2012. It decided² to hold the conference in America after President Obama ended a ban barring HIV infected people from entering the country. The ban ended on January fourth twenty ten.

This week we explore the opening of this historic conference. Faith Lapidus and Christopher Cruise tell us more.

FAITH LAPIDUS: San Francisco AIDS expert Dr. Diane Havlir is co-chair of AIDS 2012. Earlier in July, she told reporters in Washington that this year’s event was historic.

DIANE HAVLIR: “But probably the most important reason why we think this is going to be a historic event is because we really do think we are at a turning point of this epidemic³. For the first time ever, and I’ve been working in this field since the very beginning, we feel like we can declare that we are at the beginning of the end of the AIDS epidemic.”

She said it would be an extraordinary failure of global will and conscience if financial cuts blocked that chance.

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: The United Nations says thirty-four million people lived with HIV / AIDS in twenty-eleven. And it says one point seven million died from the disease.

This year's conference is called "Turning the Tide Together." More than twenty thousand people are expected to attend. Famous guests include former United States President Bill Clinton, former first lady Laura Bush, singer Elton John and actress Whoopi Goldberg.

FAITH LAPIDUS: More than one thousand people marched through central Washington to call attention to HIV/AIDS on Sunday. Excitement mixed with hope at the gathering⁴ because of a feeling that AIDS might finally be overcome.

The crowds shouted their demands as they marched down Pennsylvania Avenue.

CROWD: "President Obama, AIDS Treatment Now!"

But they also celebrated⁵.

(SOUND)

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: It was the first time the conference, has met in the United States since nineteen ninety. Since then, it could not be held all these years in the United States because of travel restrictions⁶ on people living with AIDS. Yet during that time, the face of the epidemic changed a great deal.

AIDS has killed more than thirty million people since the nineteen eighties. Michel Sidibe is executive director of the Joint⁷ United Nations Programme on HIV / AIDS. He says treatment and prevention tools now exist that could put an end to the disease.

MICHEL SIDIBE: "This time it is different. This time, together, we will end AIDS.”

FAITH LAPIDUS: AIDS conferences have become much more than places to share scientific research.

(MUSIC)

WYCLEF JEAN: "One in five [people] with HIV don't know that they are affected, so direct the question to you. My name is Wyclef; I'm Haitian..." ((cheering))

The conferences are also about support and debate among many communities.

RODERICK MAYES: "There is no negative connotation for those other diseases, but HIV . . . ."

Roderick Omar Hayes is a former U.S. Marine⁸. He found out eight years ago that he had HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. He is concerned that that fact causes others to judge him differently.

RODERICK MAYES: "The main thing I think is the stigma⁹, you know. Because you don't know who to talk to about it, who it's okay to talk to about. And people judge you differently, as if you're subhuman because you have HIV or AIDS."

But now Mayes says he's hopeful that will all end, if enough is done to cure the disease.

(MUSIC)

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: AIDS 2012 has also brought attention to groups that are deeply affected by HIV/AIDS. Sex workers say discrimination and old laws place them at greater risk of HIV infection, abuse and violence. They also spoke¹⁰ out at the International AIDS Conference.

Sex workers, along with homosexual men and intravenous drug users are three groups in which HIV infection still is rising rapidly.

One meeting included members of the international sex workers’ rights movement. Sienna Baskin is with the Sex Workers Project at the Urban Justice Center in New York City.

SIENNA BASKIN: “In 2011, the U.N. Global Commission on HIV and the Law held regional dialogues around the world. Sex workers participated in every dialogue, sharing how laws affect their access to HIV prevention and treatment, testimony¹¹ about human rights abuses and practical recommendations for change. We thought that the International AIDS Conference needed to hear these same messages.”

Kholi Buthelezi is South Africa’s coordinator¹² for the African Sexworkers Alliance. She trains sex workers for better health, human rights and better working conditions. Mz. Buthelezi says making sex work a crime violates human rights. She says sex workers in South Africa have been raped¹³, even by members of the police force. She says abuse takes many forms.

KHOLI BUTHELEZI: “One of the examples, in Mpumulanga, police go to sex workers where they stay because they know where they live. And then when they get there, they destroy condoms.”

FAITH LAPIDUS: Joining Buthelezi at the AIDS conference was Sian Maseko, director of Zimbabwe’s Sexual Rights Center. She says laws against sex work increase discrimination.

SIAN MASEKO: “Criminal laws are often used as a justification¹⁴ for stigma and discrimination against sex workers from various service providers, institutions and in general the wider community.

She says good health is more than physical. It is also a sense of well-being¹⁵, along with personal safety and security.

The group also criticized a part of PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. It is a rule known as the Anti-Prostitution Loyalty¹⁶ Oath. It is more commonly known as the anti-prostitution pledge, and is contained in the two thousand three United States Leadership against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis¹⁷ and Malaria¹⁸ Act.

It requires groups receiving United States support to fight HIV/AIDS around the world to agree to a policy of opposing sex work and human trafficking. International organizations face either taking the pledge or losing funding.

The international sex workers’ rights movement and others have launched a campaign to cancel the pledge, as well as provisions that block immigration based on sex work. They are also calling for an end to criminal laws against sex work. They say it drives sex for pay underground while increasing the risk for violence and of not receiving health services.

(MUSIC)

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: The HIV/AIDS epidemic is more than thirty years old. But, at this year’s International AIDS Conference there was talk of ending the disease through scientific progress and public health policy.

Dr. Anthony Fauci says it was many small steps over more than thirty years that led to today’s major gains against HIV/AIDS.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: “We want to get to the end of AIDS. That will only occur with some fundamental foundations. And these foundations are basic and clinical research, which will give us the tools, which will ultimately lead to interventions¹⁹ and then ultimately these will need to be implemented²¹ together with studies about how best to implement²⁰ them.”

Dr. Fauci is the director of the National Institute of Allergy²² and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health. He says the “scientific basis” exists to consider the possibility and the reality of a generation free of HIV/AIDS.

Dr. Fauci says the understanding of the HIV replication cycle is probably the most important of the many scientific gains. He says it has revealed some of the virus’ weaknesses.

FAITH LAPIDUS: Dr. Fauci says the first antiretroviral drug, AZT, offered a “glimmer of hope.” But its effects were small and did not last long. Years later, two drugs were used with better results. But they were still not good enough. There are now thirty drugs approved to treat HIV.

But is a cure possible? Scientists are working on a few possibilities, such as finding a way to remove the virus from the body. Dr. Fauci calls that a “functional cure.” That means, improving the body’s immune system to deal with HIV or somehow changing cells to resist the virus. Dr. Fauci calls it a “scientific challenge.” But, he says it can be done.

MARIO RITTER: And that’s EXPLORATIONS, a VOA program in Special English. It was adapted from reports by Joe de Capua and Jerome Socolovsky. Faith Lapidus and Christopher Cruise were your announcers. I’m Mario Ritter.

You can see other reports on HIV/AIDS at www.voanews.cn. For English learning activities and interactive²³ features, The Classroom at VOA Learning English. And follow us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and iTunes. Join us again next week for more EXPLORATIONS.

1 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

2 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

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 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

5 celebrated   

adj.有名的，声誉卓著的

参考例句：

• He was soon one of the most celebrated young painters in England.不久他就成了英格兰最负盛名的年轻画家之一。
• The celebrated violinist was mobbed by the audience.观众团团围住了这位著名的小提琴演奏家。

6 restrictions   

约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则）

参考例句：

• I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
• a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制

7 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。

8 marine   

adj.海的；海生的；航海的；海事的；n.水兵

参考例句：

• Marine creatures are those which live in the sea. 海洋生物是生存在海里的生物。
• When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时，他自愿参加了海军陆战队。

9 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。

10 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。

11 testimony   

n.证词；见证，证明

参考例句：

• The testimony given by him is dubious.他所作的证据是可疑的。
• He was called in to bear testimony to what the police officer said.他被传入为警官所说的话作证。

12 coordinator   

n.协调人

参考例句：

• The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, headed by the Emergency Relief Coordinator, coordinates all UN emergency relief. 联合国人道主义事务协调厅在紧急救济协调员领导下，负责协调联合国的所有紧急救济工作。
• How am I supposed to find the client-relations coordinator? 我怎么才能找到客户关系协调员的办公室？

13 raped   

v.以暴力夺取，强夺( rape的过去式和过去分词 )；强奸

参考例句：

• A young woman was brutally raped in her own home. 一名年轻女子在自己家中惨遭强暴。 来自辞典例句
• We got stick together, or we will be having our women raped. 我们得团结一致，不然我们的妻女就会遭到蹂躏。 来自辞典例句

14 justification   

n.正当的理由；辩解的理由

参考例句：

• There's no justification for dividing the company into smaller units. 没有理由把公司划分成小单位。
• In the young there is a justification for this feeling. 在年轻人中有这种感觉是有理由的。

15 well-being   

n.安康，安乐，幸福

参考例句：

• He always has the well-being of the masses at heart.他总是把群众的疾苦挂在心上。
• My concern for their well-being was misunderstood as interference.我关心他们的幸福，却被误解为多管闲事。

16 loyalty   

n.忠诚，忠心

参考例句：

• She told him the truth from a sense of loyalty.她告诉他真相是出于忠诚。
• His loyalty to his friends was never in doubt.他对朋友的一片忠心从来没受到怀疑。

17 tuberculosis   

n.结核病，肺结核

参考例句：

• People used to go to special health spring to recover from tuberculosis.人们常去温泉疗养胜地治疗肺结核。
• Tuberculosis is a curable disease.肺结核是一种可治愈的病。

18 malaria   

n.疟疾

参考例句：

• He had frequent attacks of malaria.他常患疟疾。
• Malaria is a kind of serious malady.疟疾是一种严重的疾病。

19 interventions   

n.介入，干涉，干预( intervention的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Economic analysis of government interventions deserves detailed discussion. 政府对经济的干预应该给予充分的论述。 来自辞典例句
• The judge's frequent interventions made a mockery of justice. 法官的屡屡干预是对正义的践踏。 来自互联网

20 implement   

n.(pl.)工具，器具；vt.实行，实施，执行

参考例句：

• Don't undertake a project unless you can implement it.不要承担一项计划，除非你能完成这项计划。
• The best implement for digging a garden is a spade.在花园里挖土的最好工具是铁锹。

21 implemented   

v.实现( implement的过去式和过去分词 )；执行；贯彻；使生效

参考例句：

• This agreement, if not implemented, is a mere scrap of paper. 这个协定如不执行只不过是一纸空文。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• The economy is in danger of collapse unless far-reaching reforms are implemented. 如果不实施影响深远的改革，经济就面临崩溃的危险。 来自辞典例句

22 allergy   

n.(因食物、药物等而引起的)过敏症

参考例句：

• He developed an allergy to pollen.他对花粉过敏。
• The patient had an allergy to penicillin.该患者对青霉素过敏。

23 interactive   

adj.相互作用的，互相影响的，（电脑）交互的

参考例句：

• The psychotherapy is carried out in small interactive groups.这种心理治疗是在互动的小组之间进行的。
• This will make videogames more interactive than ever.这将使电子游戏的互动性更胜以往。