2006年VOA标准英语-African Health Officials Advocate Integrated He

By Efam Dovi
Accra
29 July 2006

Health officials from six African countries meeting in Accra have resolved to work together to improve health screening during pregnancy¹ to control and prevent the spread of malaria² and transmission of HIV from mother to child.

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Health officials say malaria alone causes more than 10,000 maternal³ deaths and 200,000 infant deaths in Africa each year.

Dr. Antoine Serufilira, the World Health Organization's Africa regional adviser⁴ on prevention of Malaria in pregnancy, stressed the importance of networking among healthcare providers in dealing⁵ with malaria and HIV in pregnancy. "We have to integrate our services, we have to reinforce collaboration⁶ of our programs, we have to work together, we have to plan, we have to monitor together, and we have to inform each other of what we are doing, so we can use efficiently⁷ the resources we have," he said.

Poor collaboration between national malaria control programs and reproductive health programs, resistance to drugs and cost of medicines are some of the new challenges facing health officials on the African continent.

Inam Chitsike is the WHO regional adviser for prevention of mother to child HIV transmission. She says health care services should be integrated, so that diseases such as malaria and HIV are detected and treated during pre-natal and ante-natal care. "Which means that, if a mother comes for ANC (antenatal care), you offer her interventions⁸ for malaria in pregnancy, you should also offer her at the same time prevention for mother-to-child transmission (of HIV). So, it's not like a small project here, or a small project there. If you are delivering a health service to a pregnant woman, and you do not take account the impact of malaria on the pregnancy, you do not take account the impact of HIV on the pregnancy, then, really, I'm afraid that service is not a quality service," she says.

Dr. Olusola Odujinrin, a reproductive healthcare specialist at the WHO country office in Nigeria, called on governments to do more to reduce the cost burden on their citizens. "When you are thinking of the people, especially in poor resource countries, it's not going to be that easy to get people to buy these drugs, some of them are quite expensive, their more expensive than what we used to use in the past. So, government must now be alive to its responsibilities, to see how best some of these drugs can be subsidized," he said.

The meeting was organized by the WHO and the John Hopkins University Organization Specializing in Maternal and Child Health.

Participants are from Nigeria, Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Uganda.

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 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。

3 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。

4 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。

5 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

6 collaboration   

n.合作，协作；勾结

参考例句：

• The two companies are working in close collaboration each other.这两家公司密切合作。
• He was shot for collaboration with the enemy.他因通敌而被枪毙了。

7 efficiently   

adv.高效率地，有能力地

参考例句：

• The worker oils the machine to operate it more efficiently.工人给机器上油以使机器运转更有效。
• Local authorities have to learn to allocate resources efficiently.地方政府必须学会有效地分配资源。

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