VOA常速英语2007年-World Diabetes Day Highlights Spreading Problem

By Mike O'Sullivan
Los Angeles
08 November 2007
 
November 14th is the first United Nations observed World Diabetes¹ Day, and health experts say diabetes has reached epidemic² levels in many countries, including the United States. In Los Angeles, diabetes expert Dr. Francine Kaufman, the chairwoman of the event's "Diabetes in Children" campaign, spoke³ with VOA's Mike O'Sullivan about type two diabetes, which she says is spreading in the developing world.

Medical experts say diabetes affects more than 240 million people around the world, and the number is rapidly rising.

Dr. Francine Kaufman (of Childrens Hospital Los Angeles) says many children have type two diabetes, once a disease of older adults. She says type two diabetes is caused by lifestyle choices, too many calories and fat in the diet and too little activity.

Dr. Kaufman took part in a documentary for the Discovery Health Channel that will be shown on November 18th. The program is called "Diabetes: A Global Epidemic."

"I had the most wonderful experience of traveling the world, finding people with diabetes, finding the warriors⁴ who go into battle every day against diabetes, those physicians and scientists and nurses and nutritionists who are around the world facing the same thing, in India, in Australia, in South Africa," she said.

Unlike people with type one diabetes, many with type two do not need insulin injections. Instead, type two is controllable through diet, treatment and medical monitoring. Left unchecked, both types can cause blindness, loss of limbs, nerve damage and kidney failure. They can also contribute to heart disease and stroke.

Type two diabetes is preventable. Kaufman says the disease is spreading because increasing numbers of people in the developing countries like India are joining the middle classes.

Dr. Kaufman says, "So they're all in cars all day long, and they've got satellite dishes outside their houses. They are eating more food, and more Westernized food, and getting overweight and developing diabetes."

She says that in South Africa, type two diabetes is also spreading, she says, "We were in the townships and people were overweight. There is a lot more food available than has been in the past. And people are getting on buses and going to offices and not necessarily being as physically⁵ active as they have been in the past."

She says the solution has to be individualized country by country and patient by patient. In Brazil, a clinic sends out community health workers to educate patients, and sponsors dances to get diabetes patients more active.

A mobile medical team in India screens people for diabetes in the villages.

Diabetes is manageable, and type two diabetes, although spreading, is preventable. Dr. Kaufman says that is the message of World Diabetes Day.

1 diabetes   

n.糖尿病

参考例句：

• In case of diabetes, physicians advise against the use of sugar.对于糖尿病患者，医生告诫他们不要吃糖。
• Diabetes is caused by a fault in the insulin production of the body.糖尿病是由体內胰岛素分泌失调引起的。

2 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。

3 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

4 warriors   

武士，勇士，战士( warrior的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• I like reading the stories ofancient warriors. 我喜欢读有关古代武士的故事。
• The warriors speared the man to death. 武士们把那个男子戳死了。

5 physically   

adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律

参考例句：

• He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服，心绪也很乱。
• Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。