2006年VOA标准英语-Child and Maternal Mortality High in Devel

By Claudia Blume
Hong Kong
14 May 2006

Makai, a 40-year-old Afghan woman, looks at her baby boy a few hours after giving birth at public hospital in Mazar-e-Sharif  
  
Families around the world celebrate Mother's Day Sunday. But being a mother can be difficult in the developing countries of Asia, where many children die soon after their birth, or before they reach the age of five.

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In developing countries, childbirth is often a life and death struggle for both mothers and children.

The charity, Save the Children, says more than four million infants worldwide die in their first month of life each year, mostly due to infections. A third of the deaths occur in Southeast Asia. South Asia has the highest rates of newborn deaths in the world, next to Africa. In Afghanistan and Pakistan, for example, up to six percent of infants die in their first month.

Many women also do not survive complications during pregnancy¹ and childbirth.

Amy Weissman, a health expert for Save the Children in Vietnam, says the mothers most at risk are young, uneducated women who give birth at home, without the help of skilled professionals.

"The things that really make a difference around a woman's survival are her level of education, her access to quality health care and her use of modern family planning," said Weissman. "So, those things really need to be in place for a woman and her child to survive and thrive."

Children who survive the first few weeks are still at risk in many developing countries of Asia.

The World Health Organization says about 3,000 children under the age of five die each day in the western Pacific region. Most of the countries with a high child mortality rate spend less than five percent of their gross domestic product on health.

Marianna Trias, advisor² on child health at the WHO regional office in Manila, says common diseases, such as pneumonia³ and diarrhea, cause most childhood deaths. In some countries, Laos and Cambodia, for instance, malaria⁴ is a major killer⁵.

She says tools that can save children's lives, such as immunizations, nutritional⁶ supplements and insecticide-treated bed nets, are well known and inexpensive.

"But what is needed is the infrastructure⁷, the human resources and financial resources to put this all in place and deliver the life-saving interventions⁸ through the health system," explained Trias.

Trias says some countries in the region have made good progress in recent years on reducing the number of childhood deaths. They include China, Mongolia, Vietnam and the Philippines, where governments have implemented⁹ plans to improve child and maternal¹⁰ health.

1 pregnancy   

n.怀孕，怀孕期

参考例句：

• Early pregnancy is often accompanied by nausea.怀孕早期常有恶心的现象。
• Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of miscarriage.怀孕期吸烟会增加流产的危险。

2 advisor   

n.顾问，指导老师，劝告者

参考例句：

• They employed me as an advisor.他们聘请我当顾问。
• The professor is engaged as a technical advisor.这位教授被聘请为技术顾问。

3 pneumonia   

n.肺炎

参考例句：

• Cage was struck with pneumonia in her youth.凯奇年轻时得过肺炎。
• Pneumonia carried him off last week.肺炎上星期夺去了他的生命。

4 malaria   

n.疟疾

参考例句：

• He had frequent attacks of malaria.他常患疟疾。
• Malaria is a kind of serious malady.疟疾是一种严重的疾病。

5 killer   

n.杀人者，杀人犯，杀手，屠杀者

参考例句：

• Heart attacks have become Britain's No.1 killer disease.心脏病已成为英国的头号致命疾病。
• The bulk of the evidence points to him as her killer.大量证据证明是他杀死她的。

6 nutritional   

adj.营养的，滋养的

参考例句：

• A diet lacking in nutritional value will not keep a person healthy.缺乏营养价值的饮食不能维持人的健康。
• The labels on food products give a lot of information about their nutritional content.食品上的标签提供很多关于营养成分的信息。

7 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

8 interventions   

n.介入，干涉，干预( intervention的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Economic analysis of government interventions deserves detailed discussion. 政府对经济的干预应该给予充分的论述。 来自辞典例句
• The judge's frequent interventions made a mockery of justice. 法官的屡屡干预是对正义的践踏。 来自互联网

9 implemented   

v.实现( implement的过去式和过去分词 )；执行；贯彻；使生效

参考例句：

• This agreement, if not implemented, is a mere scrap of paper. 这个协定如不执行只不过是一纸空文。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• The economy is in danger of collapse unless far-reaching reforms are implemented. 如果不实施影响深远的改革，经济就面临崩溃的危险。 来自辞典例句

10 maternal   

adj.母亲的，母亲般的，母系的，母方的

参考例句：

• He is my maternal uncle.他是我舅舅。
• The sight of the hopeless little boy aroused her maternal instincts.那个绝望的小男孩的模样唤起了她的母性。