VOA慢速英语2013 撒哈拉南部非洲的健康问题

 

AS IT IS 2013-10-07 Health Problems in Sub-Saharan Africa 撒哈拉南部非洲的健康问题

Hello, and welcome to As It Is from VOA Learning English.

I’m Christopher Cruise in Washington.

Today we have news about world health and world hunger.

Food prices have been increasing. But, surprisingly, the number of people suffering from hunger has decreased around the world.

“In the countries where you see food security being really mainstreamed among economic policies and where you see real commitment from government, that is where you see results.”

We’ll have that story in a moment, but first we tell about a new international report that notes progress in the fight against malaria¹ and HIV-AIDS. Regrettably, another report also notes a sharp increase in the number of deaths in traffic accidents in recent years.

“This is a reflection of many, many, many more vehicles on the road -- great increases in vehicle ownership -- and very inadequate² investments in the infrastructure³ related to road traffic safety.”

Progress in Fight Against Malaria and HIV-AIDS

Recent reports from the World Bank describe the health challenges facing six major parts of the world. These include many diseases -- and also road accidents.

The bank says the reports will help policymakers develop health programs based on evidence after the Millennium⁴ Development Goals -- or MDGs -- end in 2015. The goals were developed in 2000 at a conference held by the United Nations Development Program.

Milagros Ardin reports.

The 189 countries taking part in the conference chose eight goals.  The goals include reducing extreme poverty and hunger, gaining worldwide early education and equality of the sexes. 

The World Bank was joined in the release of the reports by the Institutes for Health Metrics and Evaluation⁵. Timothy Evans is the World Bank’s director of Health, Nutrition and Population. 

He says different parts of the world have different health challenges.  So, a single health plan for everyone would not be effective. 

“That doesn’t work anywhere. It doesn’t work globally. It doesn’t work regionally. It doesn’t even work within a country. So the more understanding you have of context and need, the better-able the system is to respond appropriately.”

Timothy Evans notes the continuing health problems found in sub-Saharan Africa.

“The big one remains⁶ communicable diseases. That relates to HIV and malaria. And, of all the regions in the world, sub-Saharan Africa is the only region where there are more deaths and life years lost from communicable diseases than other types of illness and injury.”

Good progress has been made in the fight against malaria. That progress comes mainly from the use of insecticide-treated bed nets and indoor use of insecticides. For HIV-AIDS, the greater availability of drugs called anti-retrovirals has saved many lives. Yet one of the World Bank reports says malaria and HIV-AIDS are still major health problems. Road accidents are also a top killer⁷ in southern Africa -- and in most of the areas studied.

“What we’re seeing is a dramatic surge in mortality and injury from road traffic accidents. And, this is a reflection of many, many, many more vehicles on the road -- great increases in vehicle ownership -- and very inadequate investments in the infrastructure related to road traffic safety.”

The World Bank official says the road accident death rates in Africa are 100 times greater than those in the United States.

In the Middle East and North Africa, called the MENA area for short, health worries differ from those in sub-Saharan Africa.

Much of North Africa and the Middle East suffer violence and conflict.  Mr. Evans says war and unrest directly affect the health of populations in those countries -- Syria, Libya, and Egypt, for example.

“Health does well in conditions of security. Health is really threatened in conditions of insecurity and it relates to some of the terrible violence that you see, which is often associated with situations where the normal rule of law has been lost and there’s armed violence and other sorts of problems. The uncertainty⁸ often leads to mass movements of people across borders into territories where they’re not necessarily welcome.”           

In addition, violence and conflict cause many professional people to leave troubled areas. This causes so-called “brain drain” -- loss of people with needed skills. 

I’m Milagros Ardin. 

A Surprising Decline in World Hunger 

A new United Nations report says the number of hungry people has dropped, but not enough to meet development goals.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization says one in eight people are suffering from chronic⁹ hunger. That represents 842 million people worldwide.

That is a drop from the estimate of 868 million last year. And it is 17 percent less than the number reported in the early 1990s.

World leaders have agreed to a goal of cutting the number of hungry people in half worldwide by 2015. But not everyone thinks that goal is realistic. Piero Conforti is a statistician with the Food and Agriculture Organization. He thinks it may be possible to meet the Millennium Development Goal of cutting in half the percentage of people suffering from hunger in developing countries.

“This goal is closer and has been reached in many countries, actually. But, still, in order to meet it by 2015 would require significant additional effort.”

Piero Conforti says investments in agriculture -- especially small-scale agriculture -- can have the biggest effect on reducing hunger and poverty.

“In the countries where you see food security being really mainstreamed among economic policies and where you see real commitment from government, that is where you see results.”

The FAO report says hunger is the biggest problem facing African countries south of the Saharan Desert. It says there has been little progress to reduce hunger in that area. There have been slow improvements in Southern Asia and Northern Africa, but none in Western Asia. The most progress has happened in Latin America and Eastern and Southeastern Asia.

Mr. Conforti says the recent weakness in the world economy and sharp increases in food prices had a smaller-than-expected effect on world hunger. And he says farmers have answered the higher prices by increasing production.

The report also notes the effect of remittances¹⁰ -- money sent home by people working in other countries.

“They’ve become significant flows, sometimes bigger than the total inflow of foreign aid.”

?He says these remittances can help small-scale farmers and improve food security. 

And that’s As It Is for today.

1 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。

2 inadequate   

adj.(for,to)不充足的，不适当的

参考例句：

• The supply is inadequate to meet the demand.供不应求。
• She was inadequate to the demands that were made on her.她还无力满足对她提出的各项要求。

3 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

4 millennium   

n.一千年，千禧年；太平盛世

参考例句：

• The whole world was counting down to the new millennium.全世界都在倒计时迎接新千年的到来。
• We waited as the clock ticked away the last few seconds of the old millennium.我们静候着时钟滴答走过千年的最后几秒钟。

5 evaluation   

n.估价，评价；赋值

参考例句：

• I attempted an honest evaluation of my own life.我试图如实地评价我自己的一生。
• The new scheme is still under evaluation.新方案还在评估阶段。

6 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

7 killer   

n.杀人者，杀人犯，杀手，屠杀者

参考例句：

• Heart attacks have become Britain's No.1 killer disease.心脏病已成为英国的头号致命疾病。
• The bulk of the evidence points to him as her killer.大量证据证明是他杀死她的。

8 uncertainty   

n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物

参考例句：

• Her comments will add to the uncertainty of the situation.她的批评将会使局势更加不稳定。
• After six weeks of uncertainty,the strain was beginning to take its toll.6个星期的忐忑不安后，压力开始产生影响了。

9 chronic   

adj.(疾病)长期未愈的，慢性的；极坏的

参考例句：

• Famine differs from chronic malnutrition.饥荒不同于慢性营养不良。
• Chronic poisoning may lead to death from inanition.慢性中毒也可能由虚弱导致死亡。

10 remittances   

n.汇寄( remittance的名词复数 )；汇款，汇款额

参考例句：

• He sends regular remittances to his parents. 他定期汇款给他父母。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Remittances sometimes account for as much as 20% of GDP. 在这些国家中，此类汇款有时会占到GDP的20%之多。 来自互联网