HEALTH REPORT - SARS in China

HEALTH REPORT - SARS in China
By Jerilyn Watson

Broadcast: Wednesday, May 05, 2004

Broadcast May 5, 2004

This is Phoebe Zimmermann with the VOA Special English Health Report.

 
Medical workers monitor suspected SARS patient in Beijing
China has been dealing¹ recently with new cases of the lung disease SARS. SARS is severe acute respiratory syndrome². Chinese officials reported a small number of cases as of last week. All were linked to employees of a disease control laboratory in Beijing or people close to them.

Last Friday the Health Ministry³ confirmed the first death from SARS since last year. The victim was a woman who died in late April in the eastern province of Anhui. She was the mother of a student researcher who became infected at the laboratory and traveled home to Anhui.

Officials are keeping hundreds of people away from others to observe them for signs of SARS. Last Friday tens of millions of Chinese began to travel for a week-long May Day holiday. Officials were at airports and train stations to watch for sick travelers.

New research shows that the SARS virus can travel through the air. Scientists from Hong Kong reported their findings in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Last year, in Hong Kong, more than three-hundred people got SARS in the Amoy Gardens housing project. Experts were not sure how the infection spread from building to building. A team of researchers decided⁴ to use computers to recreate conditions there. Ignatius Yu from Chinese University of Hong Kong led the team.

The study centered on the buildings where the first one-hundred-eighty-seven cases of SARS were reported. The team connected the position of where each person lived with information about airflow in and around the buildings.

They say the virus first began to spread in March of last year when a visitor used a toilet in one of the buildings. This person was sick from SARS. The bathroom with the toilet had an exhaust fan for airflow.

Investigators⁵ from the World Health Organization later examined the pipes in the bathroom. They found conditions that could have permitted the fan to pull the virus up into the air system of the building. The researchers who did the new study say wind then carried the virus to other buildings. The virus traveled on drops of water so small they could not be seen.

Experts say SARS began in mainland China in November two-thousand-two. It infected eight-thousand people worldwide last year. Seven-hundred-seventy-four deaths were reported.

This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. I'm Phoebe Zimmermann.

1 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

2 syndrome   

n.综合病症；并存特性

参考例句：

• The Institute says that an unidentified virus is to blame for the syndrome. 该研究所表示,引起这种综合症的是一种尚未确认的病毒。
• Results indicated that 11 fetuses had Down syndrome. 结果表明有11个胎儿患有唐氏综合征。

3 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

4 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。

5 investigators   

n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
• The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》