HEALTH REPORT - UN Says AIDS Crisis Is Getting Worse

HEALTH REPORT - UN Says AIDS Crisis¹ Is Getting Worse
By Cynthia Kirk

Broadcast: Wednesday, July 14, 2004

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

 
The Fifteenth International Conference on AIDS.
The fifteenth International AIDS Conference ends Friday in Bangkok, Thailand. There has not been much good news. In fact, the United Nations AIDS program reported last week that the crisis is getting worse.

The report said more people than ever, almost five million, became infected last year with H.I.V. Thirty-eight million are now infected with the virus that causes AIDS. Almost half are women. And half are between the ages of fifteen and twenty-four.

Last year almost three million people with AIDS died. The U.N. says more than twenty million have died since the disease² was first recognized in nineteen-eighty-one.

The report says H.I.V. is spreading fastest in eastern Europe and Asia. About seven million people in Asia are living with H.I.V. The disease largely³ began to spread there among sex workers, homosexual men and people who inject drugs. But experts say it is now moving into the general population.

China, Indonesia and Vietnam were noted⁴ for the sharpest increases. India has the highest number of infections of any country except South Africa. India has more than five million people with H.I.V.

Seventy percent of H.I.V. infected people in the world live in southern Africa. Yet that area has only ten percent of the world's population. An estimated⁵ twenty-five million people are infected in countries south of the Sahara. Three out of four are women. Among sixteen year olds in southern Africa today, sixty percent might not reach their sixtieth birthday. After Africa, the U.N. report says the Caribbean is the area hardest hit.

U.N. officials says infections are also on the rise in the United States and western Europe. Half of the new infections in the United States are among African-Americans.

The report blames the increase in western countries largely on the use of AIDS drugs which suppress⁶ the virus. Officials say these medicines have made some people less concerned about being infected.

Many countries have reduced their rates of H.I.V. infection. Among them are Brazil, Uganda and Thailand. Also, drug prices have dropped. And there is more money to fight AIDS. But the U.N. AIDS report says developing countries are getting less than half the money they need. It says only one person in five in developing countries is able to get treatment.

This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Phoebe Zimmerman.

1 crisis   

n.危机，危急关头，决定性时刻，关键阶段

参考例句：

• He had proved that he could be relied on in a crisis.他已表明，在紧要关头他是可以信赖的。
• The topic today centers about the crisis in the Middle East.今天课题的中心是中东危机。

2 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。

3 largely   

adv.大部分，主要地

参考例句：

• It is largely dependent on the weather.这多半取决于天气情况。
• Their conclusions were largely founded on guesswork.他们的结论大部份基于猜测。

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 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。

6 suppress   

vt.压制，镇压，查禁，抑制，阻止

参考例句：

• He continued to suppress the people and serve the imperialists.他继续镇压人民，为帝国主义效劳。
• She was struggling to suppress her sobs.她拼命不让自己哭出来。