2006年VOA标准英语-Australia Tests Bird Flu Defenses

By Phil Mercer
Sydney
19 October 2006
 
One-thousand people in Australia have conducted a four-day bird flu exercise that simulated the arrival of a planeload of flu-stricken passengers at Brisbane's international airport.  The drill included customs officers, the police, and health workers.

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Magpie1 geese rest in a mango tree plantation2 in Darwin, Australia" src="/upimg/allimg/070504/1452400.jpg" width="210" border="0" /> Magpie geese rest in a mango tree plantation in Darwin, Australia

Australia has been free of the H5N1 bird flu virus, but there is understandable concern here because Australia's near neighbor, Indonesia, has reported the world's largest number of human fatalities³ from the disease.

The four-day simulation, called Exercise Cumpston after a famous scientist, tested Australia's readiness for a bird flu outbreak.

It began at the international airport in the east coast city of Brisbane. One-hundred-50 passengers, played by actors, arrived on board a flight from the fictitious⁴ Asian country of Acamar, which had reported an outbreak of avian influenza⁵.

A series of drills tested the readiness of customs officers, who separated the "sick" passengers at the airport, and emergency services and health workers at two city hospitals designated to treat the disease. A mock emergency cabinet meeting was held in the federal capital, Canberra.

Australia's federal health minister, Tony Abbot, says the test showed that the country is prepared.

"Exercise Cumpston is the largest ever health simulation exercise undertaken in Australia," said Abbot. "I think what we have seen today demonstrates just how thorough the preparation for a potential bird flu outbreak has been."

Experts believe that if bird flu reaches Australia, it will almost certainly be spread by air travel rather than by migrating birds.

The drill was held in the northeastern state of Queensland because officials there believe the region, with its three international airports, is one of the most vulnerable in the country to the disease.

Meanwhile Australian health authorities approved trials for a new bird flu vaccine⁶.

The H5N1 virus first appeared in Hong Kong in 1997, where 18 people were infected and six died. The disease reappeared in Vietnam and China in 2003, and has since killed more than 150 people, mostly in Southeast Asia.

Almost all human cases have come from people handling infected poultry⁷. But scientists fear the virus could mutate into a form that can pass rapidly between humans, which could lead to a global pandemic putting millions of people at risk.

The Australian government has spent more than $450 million preparing for such an outbreak, and has built up one of the world's largest stockpiles of anti-viral drugs.

1 magpie   

n.喜欢收藏物品的人，喜鹊，饶舌者

参考例句：

• Now and then a magpie would call.不时有喜鹊的叫声。
• This young man is really a magpie.这个年轻人真是饶舌。

2 plantation   

n.种植园，大农场

参考例句：

• His father-in-law is a plantation manager.他岳父是个种植园经营者。
• The plantation owner has possessed himself of a vast piece of land.这个种植园主把大片土地占为己有。

3 fatalities   

n.恶性事故( fatality的名词复数 )；死亡；致命性；命运

参考例句：

• Several people were injured, but there were no fatalities. 有几个人受伤，但没有人死亡。
• The accident resulted in fatalities. 那宗意外道致多人死亡。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 fictitious   

adj.虚构的，假设的；空头的

参考例句：

• She invented a fictitious boyfriend to put him off.她虚构出一个男朋友来拒绝他。
• The story my mother told me when I was young is fictitious.小时候妈妈对我讲的那个故事是虚构的。

5 influenza   

n.流行性感冒，流感

参考例句：

• They took steps to prevent the spread of influenza.他们采取措施
• Influenza is an infectious disease.流感是一种传染病。

6 vaccine   

n.牛痘苗，疫苗；adj.牛痘的，疫苗的

参考例句：

• The polio vaccine has saved millions of lives.脊髓灰质炎疫苗挽救了数以百万计的生命。
• She takes a vaccine against influenza every fall.她每年秋季接种流感疫苗。

7 poultry   

n.家禽，禽肉

参考例句：

• There is not much poultry in the shops. 商店里禽肉不太多。
• What do you feed the poultry on? 你们用什么饲料喂养家禽?