2006年VOA标准英语-Cholera Drug Tested Successfully, but Pand

By David McAlary
Washington
07 June 2006

Children collect water in Luanda, Angola   
  
Researchers in Bangladesh have tested a drug that cures cholera¹ in most patients, showing that it is a useful new weapon in an arsenal² that has grown weak against the cholera organism's growing drug resistance. But, drugs alone cannot halt the advance of cholera across the globe.

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The world is in the midst of a cholera pandemic that began 45 years ago in Indonesia. Cholera is an infectious disease of the small intestine³ that causes watery⁴ diarrhea, vomiting⁵ and muscle cramps⁶. In severe cases, rapid loss of body fluids leads to dehydration⁷ and shock. Without treatment, death can occur within hours. The disease thrives in contaminated water and United Nations figures show that one-sixth of humanity, one billion people, do not have access to clean water. Another 2 1/2 billion are without sanitation⁸. The World Health Organization says that by 1992, the cholera pandemic feeding on these conditions had swept across the developing world, invading regions that had not seen it in a century.

But medicines that have been a mainstay against this diarrheal illness are growing less effective because of overuse. Physician Michael Bennish of the University of Oxford⁹ in England says the vibrio bacterium¹⁰ that causes epidemic¹¹ cholera has been adapting to the drugs.

"Resistance is developing faster than we can identify new agents and new treatments. We don't have many options left. It's a very meager¹² set of options at this point," he said.

Just 10 years ago, Bennish and colleagues found that a single dose of an antibiotic¹³ called ciprofloxacin was very effective in treating severe cholera in adults in Bangladesh. But like other cholera drugs, it has weakened against the disease since then, causing the team to test a newer antibiotic called azithromycin.

The results published in the New England Journal of Medicine are hopeful. A single 95-cent dose of azithromycin ended watery diarrhea in two days for three-fourths of the patients who took it. In contrast, ciprofloxacin succeeded in only one-fourth of patients.

"The good news is that we've found a new, effective antimicrobial regimen that is inexpensive and appropriate for use in developing countries, safe for use in children and adults, well-tolerated, and extremely effective," added Bennish. "The bad news is that the drug that we've come to rely on for the last 15 years, ciprofloxacin, has all of a sudden proved ineffective because resistance has developed to it."

But time may be running out for azithromycin, too. Bennish says the vibrio bacterium is starting to become resistant¹⁴ to this newer drug -- at least in Bangladesh.

"If we get widespread resistance to both azithromycin and ciprofloxacin, we're really in a very, very difficult position and there is no easy answer," he said.

Bennish says there is a great need to develop new affordable¹⁵ drugs. But he and others acknowledge that drugs cannot hold the line against cholera in a world where billions live in unclean conditions.

The director of the University of Virginia's Center for Global Health, Dr. Richard Guerrant says the sanitation revolution of the 19th and early 20th centuries eliminated cholera in Europe and North America, but in developing countries, there is too much emphasis on antimicrobial drugs and oral rehydration therapy -- a solution of salts and other substances, such as sugars, which is administered orally.

"Clearly, the problem is one of lack of adequate water and sanitation. That has created the huge need not only for oral rehydration, but for the antimicrobials that we are rapidly losing. The antibiotic approach is obviously life-saving and tremendously important. Oral rehydration therapy is perhaps the greatest medical advance and perhaps also the greatest indictment¹⁶ of 20th century medicine because we have basically done that instead of the sanitary¹⁷ revolution," he explained.

Six years ago, United Nations member states set a goal of reducing the percentage of people lacking clean water and sanitation by half as one of several Millennium¹⁸ Development Goals to be met by 2015.

But an analysis by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington says the effort is underfunded and will require an extra $15- to 30-billion in addition to the $30 billion already invested each year in development.

1 cholera   

n.霍乱

参考例句：

• The cholera outbreak has been contained.霍乱的发生已被控制住了。
• Cholera spread like wildfire through the camps.霍乱在营地里迅速传播。

2 arsenal   

n.兵工厂，军械库

参考例句：

• Even the workers at the arsenal have got a secret organization.兵工厂工人暗中也有组织。
• We must be the great arsenal of democracy.我们必须成为民主的大军火库。

3 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。

4 watery   

adj.有水的，水汪汪的；湿的，湿润的

参考例句：

• In his watery eyes there is an expression of distrust.他那含泪的眼睛流露出惊惶失措的神情。
• Her eyes became watery because of the smoke.因为烟熏，她的双眼变得泪汪汪的。

5 vomiting   

吐

参考例句：

• Symptoms include diarrhoea and vomiting. 症状有腹泻和呕吐。
• Especially when I feel seasick, I can't stand watching someone else vomiting." 尤其晕船的时候，看不得人家呕。”

6 cramps   

n. 抽筋, 腹部绞痛, 铁箍 adj. 狭窄的, 难解的 v. 使...抽筋, 以铁箍扣紧, 束缚

参考例句：

• If he cramps again let the line cut him off. 要是它再抽筋，就让这钓索把它勒断吧。
• "I have no cramps." he said. “我没抽筋，"他说。

7 dehydration   

n.脱水，干燥

参考例句：

• He died from severe dehydration.他死于严重脱水。
• The eyes are often retracted from dehydration.眼睛常因脱水而凹陷。

8 sanitation   

n.公共卫生，环境卫生，卫生设备

参考例句：

• The location is exceptionally poor,viewed from the sanitation point.从卫生角度来看，这个地段非常糟糕。
• Many illnesses are the result,f inadequate sanitation.许多疾病都来源于不健全的卫生设施。

9 Oxford   

n.牛津（英国城市）

参考例句：

• At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
• This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。

10 bacterium   

n.(pl.)bacteria 细菌

参考例句：

• The bacterium possibly goes in the human body by the mouth.细菌可能通过口进入人体。
• A bacterium is identified as the cause for his duodenal ulcer.一种细菌被断定为造成他十二指肠溃疡的根源。

11 epidemic   

n.流行病；盛行；adj.流行性的，流传极广的

参考例句：

• That kind of epidemic disease has long been stamped out.那种传染病早已绝迹。
• The authorities tried to localise the epidemic.当局试图把流行病限制在局部范围。

12 meager   

adj.缺乏的，不足的，瘦的

参考例句：

• He could not support his family on his meager salary.他靠微薄的工资无法养家。
• The two men and the woman grouped about the fire and began their meager meal.两个男人同一个女人围着火，开始吃起少得可怜的午饭。

13 antibiotic   

adj.抗菌的；n.抗生素

参考例句：

• The doctor said that I should take some antibiotic.医生说我应该服些用抗生素。
• Antibiotic can be used against infection.抗菌素可以用来防止感染。

14 resistant   

adj.(to)抵抗的，有抵抗力的

参考例句：

• Many pests are resistant to the insecticide.许多害虫对这种杀虫剂有抵抗力。
• They imposed their government by force on the resistant population.他们以武力把自己的统治强加在持反抗态度的人民头上。

15 affordable   

adj.支付得起的，不太昂贵的

参考例句：

• The rent for the four-roomed house is affordable.四居室房屋的房租付得起。
• There are few affordable apartments in big cities.在大城市中没有几所公寓是便宜的。

16 indictment   

n.起诉；诉状

参考例句：

• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。
• They issued an indictment against them.他们起诉了他们。

17 sanitary   

adj.卫生方面的，卫生的，清洁的，卫生的

参考例句：

• It's not sanitary to let flies come near food.让苍蝇接近食物是不卫生的。
• The sanitary conditions in this restaurant are abominable.这家饭馆的卫生状况糟透了。

18 millennium   

n.一千年，千禧年；太平盛世

参考例句：

• The whole world was counting down to the new millennium.全世界都在倒计时迎接新千年的到来。
• We waited as the clock ticked away the last few seconds of the old millennium.我们静候着时钟滴答走过千年的最后几秒钟。