SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Gifts of Life: Organ Transplants Reach

SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Gifts of Life: Organ Transplants Reach Record Levels in U.S.
By Cynthia Kirk

Broadcast: Tuesday, August 09, 2005

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VOICE ONE:

This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Barbara Klein.

VOICE TWO:

 
 

And I'm Bob Doughty¹. On our program this week, we tell about medical transplant operations. Doctors perform transplant operations to replace tissue or organs in a person who is sick or injured. Organ transplants help save thousands of lives each year.

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VOICE ONE:

Last year marked the fiftieth anniversary of the first successful transplant of a human organ. An American medical team performed the first successful organ transplant on December twenty-third, nineteen fifty-four. The operation took place at what is now Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts.

The patient, Richard Herrick, was dying from a kidney infection. Doctor Joseph Murray led the team that gave Richard a kidney from his twin brother, Ronald. Ronald had the same genes² as Richard, but was in excellent health. Richard survived for eight more years with the kidney. In nineteen-ninety, Doctor Murray was given the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his work.

VOICE TWO:

Experts say the first transplant operation was carried out in eighteen twenty-three. A German doctor placed skin from a woman's leg on her nose. By eighteen sixty-three, a French scientist showed that the body rejects tissue transplants from one person to another. Forty years later, a German scientist found that this rejection³ was carried out by the body's defense⁴ system attacking the foreign tissue.

Rejection continued to be a problem well into the twentieth century. In nineteen fifty-eight, French doctor Jean Dausset discovered a system for tissue matching. This is a way to make sure that the tissue to be transplanted is as similar as possible to the patient's own tissue.

VOICE ONE:

In nineteen seventy-two, Swiss scientist Jean Borel discovered that the drug cyclosporine could stop the body from rejecting the new organ or tissue. Cyclosporine is a natural product made from a fungus⁵ found in soil. Cyclosporine was approved for use in the United States in nineteen eighty-three. Experts say the use of this drug is the most important reason for the success of transplant operations today.

Doctors around the world now can save thousands of lives with transplant operations. American officials say a record number of organ transplants were performed in the United States last year. Nearly twenty-seven thousand people received one or more organs. These people can be expected to survive for many years.

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VOICE TWO:

More than twenty different organs and tissues can be transplanted from one person to another. The organ most commonly transplanted is the kidney. The success rate of kidney transplants is very high. Some kidney transplant patients have survived for more than forty years.

Another commonly transplanted organ is the liver. It is the only organ in the body that can grow to normal size from a small piece. Doctors can remove part of a liver from a person and place it into a patient who has liver failure. After the operation, both livers will grow to full size.

VOICE ONE:

The South African doctor Christiaan Barnard performed the first successful heart transplant in nineteen sixty-seven. Many more heart transplants have been done since cyclosporine was approved for use.

Experts say the number of heart transplants decreased last year. They say the demand for heart transplants has slowed because of improvements in medical processes and better treatments for heart disease.

Sometimes, lung disease damages the heart. So doctors must replace both the heart and the lungs. The pancreas and the intestines⁷ are two other organs that can be transplanted.

VOICE TWO:

Doctors also perform tissue transplants. The most common is a blood transfusion⁸. People may receive blood after an operation or accident. Blood is considered a tissue. Other tissue transplants involve skin, bone marrow⁹, blood vessels¹⁰ and corneas.

Corneal transplants improve the sight of people whose eyes have been damaged by injury or infection. Such operations have a success rate of more than ninety percent.

VOICE ONE:

Skin transplants reduce the chance of infection in severely¹¹ burned areas of skin. These transplants remain on the body for several weeks. This is done until skin from another part of the patient's body can be used for a permanent transplant.

Bone marrow transplants are for people who have diseases such as leukemia, a cancer of the blood. Doctors remove marrow from the hip¹² bone of a healthy person. Then they place it into the sick person where the marrow begins to produce healthy blood cells.

Bones can be transplanted, too. In some countries, doctors have even transplanted arms and hands.

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VOICE TWO:

A transplant operation is successful only if doctors can prevent the body from rejecting the foreign organ or tissue. This is done with drugs like cyclosporine. The patient also must receive tissue that is similar to his or her own. The person providing the tissue or organ is known as the donor¹³. The one receiving it is the recipient¹⁴.

Both the donor and recipient must have similar blood. For some transplants, they also must have some of the same proteins called H.L.A. antigens. H.L.A. antigens are found on the outside of cells. Each person has many different H.L.A. antigens. The donor and recipient must have several of the same antigens for the transplant to have a chance to succeed.

VOICE ONE:

Family members are often the best choice for a donor when a person needs a transplant. However, most transplanted organs come from people who have died or been declared brain dead. People who are brain dead usually suffered a head injury. After brain activity ends, doctors can use machines to keep the other organs working. This continues until a transplant recipient is found.

In the United States, a private group keeps a national list of persons who need a transplant. It is called the United Network for Organ Sharing, or UNOS. It says the number of persons waiting for organ transplants has risen sharply in the past fifteen years.

At the time, there were about twenty thousand people on the waiting list. There are about eighty nine thousand now. Each year, more than six thousand Americans die before the organ they need is found.

VOICE TWO:

Efforts to increase the number of organ donors¹⁵ have helped to reduce the waiting time. UNOS says transplant operations in the United States last year used almost as many organs from living donors as from people who had died.

Kidneys can come from a living donor because a person can live with only one. Living donors can also give part of their liver, pancreas, intestine⁶ or a piece of a lung.

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VOICE ONE:

Organ and tissue shortages are a worldwide problem. The shortage of organs has led health officials to begin easing rules about who can give an organ. Some doctors have started accepting organs once considered unusable.

Not surprisingly, some people see a chance for profit. Each year, hundreds of poor people illegally sell their kidneys for later use in transplant operations.

VOICE TWO:

Some animal organs have been experimentally transplanted into people. Doctors began to perform such operations because of the lack of human organs. Those who continue the experiments say they believe there will never be enough human organs to meet the need.

Many scientists say pigs are the best animals for transplants. Heart valves from pigs are being used to replace diseased or damaged heart valves in people. Scientists say animal tissue could also be useful in countries where human-to-human transplants are not permitted.

VOICE ONE:

Health care workers around the world say organ and tissue transplants save thousands of lives. Some officials call organ donation the gift of life. They urge people to consider giving permission to use their organs for transplant operations if they should die unexpectedly.

In the United States, people who wish to donate their organs if they die in an accident can state so on their driving permit. A medical organization will then do a computer search for people who need organs and have similar tissue.

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VOICE TWO:

This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written and produced by Cynthia Kirk. I'm Bob Doughty.

VOICE ONE:

And I'm Barbara Klein. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America.

1 doughty   

adj.勇猛的，坚强的

参考例句：

• Most of successful men have the characteristics of contumacy and doughty.绝大多数成功人士都有共同的特质：脾气倔强，性格刚强。
• The doughty old man battled his illness with fierce determination.坚强的老人用巨大毅力与疾病作斗争。

2 genes   

n.基因( gene的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• You have good genes from your parents, so you should live a long time. 你从父母那儿获得优良的基因，所以能够活得很长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Differences will help to reveal the functions of the genes. 它们间的差异将会帮助我们揭开基因多种功能。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 生物技术的世纪

3 rejection   

n.拒绝，被拒，抛弃，被弃

参考例句：

• He decided not to approach her for fear of rejection.他因怕遭拒绝决定不再去找她。
• The rejection plunged her into the dark depths of despair.遭到拒绝使她陷入了绝望的深渊。

4 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

5 fungus   

n.真菌，真菌类植物

参考例句：

• Mushrooms are a type of fungus.蘑菇是一种真菌。
• This fungus can just be detected by the unaided eye.这种真菌只用肉眼就能检查出。

6 intestine   

adj.内部的；国内的；n.肠

参考例句：

• This vitamin is absorbed through the walls of the small intestine.这种维生素通过小肠壁被吸收。
• The service productivity is the function,including external efficiency,intestine efficiency and capacity efficiency.服务业的生产率是一个包含有外部效率、内部效率和能力效率的函数。

7 intestines   

n.肠( intestine的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Perhaps the most serious problems occur in the stomach and intestines. 最严重的问题或许出现在胃和肠里。 来自辞典例句
• The traps of carnivorous plants function a little like the stomachs and small intestines of animals. 食肉植物的捕蝇器起着动物的胃和小肠的作用。 来自辞典例句

8 transfusion   

n.输血，输液

参考例句：

• She soon came to her senses after a blood transfusion.输血后不久她就苏醒了。
• The doctor kept him alive by a blood transfusion.医生靠输血使他仍然活着。

9 marrow   

n.骨髓；精华；活力

参考例句：

• It was so cold that he felt frozen to the marrow. 天气太冷了，他感到寒冷刺骨。
• He was tired to the marrow of his bones.他真是累得筋疲力尽了。

10 vessels   

n.血管( vessel的名词复数 )；船；容器；（具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的）人

参考例句：

• The river is navigable by vessels of up to 90 tons. 90 吨以下的船只可以从这条河通过。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• All modern vessels of any size are fitted with radar installations. 所有现代化船只都有雷达装置。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

11 severely   

adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地

参考例句：

• He was severely criticized and removed from his post.他受到了严厉的批评并且被撤了职。
• He is severely put down for his careless work.他因工作上的粗心大意而受到了严厉的批评。

12 hip   

n.臀部，髋；屋脊

参考例句：

• The thigh bone is connected to the hip bone.股骨连着髋骨。
• The new coats blouse gracefully above the hip line.新外套在臀围线上优美地打着褶皱。

13 donor   

n.捐献者；赠送人；(组织、器官等的)供体

参考例句：

• In these cases,the recipient usually takes care of the donor afterwards.在这类情况下，接受捐献者以后通常会照顾捐赠者。
• The Doctor transplanted the donor's heart to Mike's chest cavity.医生将捐赠者的心脏移植进麦克的胸腔。

14 recipient   

a.接受的,感受性强的 n.接受者,感受者,容器

参考例句：

• Please check that you have a valid email certificate for each recipient. 请检查是否对每个接收者都有有效的电子邮件证书。
• Colombia is the biggest U . S aid recipient in Latin America. 哥伦比亚是美国在拉丁美洲最大的援助对象。

15 donors   

n.捐赠者( donor的名词复数 )；献血者；捐血者；器官捐献者

参考例句：

• Please email us to be removed from our active list of blood donors. 假如你想把自己的名字从献血联系人名单中删去，请给我们发电子邮件。
• About half this amount comes from individual donors and bequests. 这笔钱大约有一半来自个人捐赠及遗赠。 来自《简明英汉词典》