DEVELOPMENT REPORT - DOTS Program Helps Reduce Tuberculosis

DEVELOPMENT REPORT - DOTS Program Helps Reduce Tuberculosis¹ Rates in China
By Jill Moss²

Broadcast: Monday, August 09, 2004

This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report.

The World Health Organization says tuberculosis rates have dropped in China thanks to the DOTS program. DOTS is a way for countries to try to control tuberculosis.

The full name is directly observed treatment-short course. Directly observed means that someone watches to make sure people take their daily medicine. Full treatment usually lasts from six to eight months.

Some people stop as soon as they feel better. That only makes the infection more difficult to treat. The patient also remains³ a risk to others.

 
Tuberculosis Patient
The DOTS program calls for strong government support.

China started its program with help from the World Bank and the W.H.O. in nineteen-ninety-one. Health officials established the program in half the population. After ten years researchers did a national study of tuberculosis.

Doctors estimated⁴ there were thirty percent fewer cases in the DOTS half than in the other half of the population. The W.H.O. says the results prove that the program should be expanded throughout China.

More than one million new cases of tuberculosis are reported in China each year. India has a worse situation. The W.H.O. estimates⁵ that forty percent of the eight million people in the world with TB live in China or India. But the agency⁶ says those two countries and others have made progress to reduce rates of infection.

The rates are up, however, in southern Africa and the countries of the former Soviet⁷ Union. The AIDS virus is to blame in Africa. Someone with H.I.V. is ten times more likely to become infected with tuberculosis.

The situation is different in the former Soviet republics. Experts say the disease⁸ is spreading there mostly because infected people are not taking their medicine correctly.

A bad cough is not the only sign of tuberculosis. Others include pain in the chest, increased body temperature and coughing up blood. The bacteria spread through the air when the person coughs or sneezes.

Each year about two million people die from tuberculosis. The World Health Organization wants to expand the DOTS program to more countries. In two thousand two, only thirty-seven percent of all cases were treated this way.

The United Nations wants to cut in half the number of TB cases by two thousand fifteen.

This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Robert Cohen.

1 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。

2 moss   

n.苔，藓，地衣

参考例句：

• Moss grows on a rock.苔藓生在石头上。
• He was found asleep on a pillow of leaves and moss.有人看见他枕着树叶和苔藓睡着了。

3 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。

4 estimated   

adj．根据估计的

参考例句：

• She estimated the breadth of the lake to be 500 metres. 她估计湖面大约有500米宽。
• The man estimated for the repair of the car. 那人估算了修理汽车的费用。

5 estimates   

估计

参考例句：

• Unofficial estimates put the figure at over two million. 非官方的估计数字为200万以上。
• We got estimates from three different contractors before accepting the lowest. 我们得到3个承包商的报价后，接受了最低的报价。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 agency   

n.经办；代理；代理处

参考例句：

• This disease is spread through the agency of insects.这种疾病是通过昆虫媒介传播的。
• He spoke in the person of Xinhua News Agency.他代表新华社讲话。

7 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

8 disease   

n.疾病，弊端

参考例句：

• The doctors are trying to stamp out the disease.医生正在尽力消灭这种疾病。
• He fought against the disease for a long time.他同疾病做了长时间的斗争。