2007年VOA标准英语-AIDS Vaccine Being Tested in South Africa

cBy Scott Bobb
Soweto
05 March 2007
 
watch Vaccine¹ report  

Researchers in South Africa have launched trials of a promising² vaccine they hope will help prevent the spread of the deadly HIV/AIDS virus. Three thousand volunteers are being injected with the vaccine over the next few years. VOA's Scott Bobb visited the site of one of the trials, in Soweto's Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital outside Johannesburg and has this report.

 
Thabo is part of the AIDS vaccine experiment
Thabo is a bit nervous as he enters a clinic in South Africa's largest hospital to join the Phambili project.  Phambili means "forward" in the local Zulu language.

Thabo is one of the first of 3,000 volunteers to receive the vaccine. The vaccine has undergone preliminary trials on humans in the Americas and is proven to be safe. Now it is being tried on a broader population to test its effectiveness. If successful, the trials will be further expanded as a first step toward licensing³ and marketing⁴.

In this country where more than 10 percent of the population is infected with AIDS, researchers hope the vaccine will boost resistance to HIV or at least slow its progression into full-blown AIDS.

 
An AIDS vaccine being administered
They are also keen to test the vaccine here because the strain of HIV in Africa is different from the one in America. It infects primarily heterosexual people rather than homosexuals and infects more women than men. If the vaccine is successful, it would go a long way toward developing a global vaccine.

Thabo, in his mid-20s and unemployed⁵, says he hopes to help in that battle. "Because I've got friends and members of the family that are infected with AIDS. And then I hope to see a cure for AIDS in the future. Yes, that will come."

Thabo says he is not afraid. He knows the vaccine contains several genetically⁶ engineered proteins of the HIV virus, but not the actual virus itself. So he cannot get AIDS from the vaccine.

Muzi Mkhwanazi is a former model who recruits volunteers for Phambili in Soweto. He is looking for men and women between 18 and 35 years old who do not have HIV. Muzi explains that half of the volunteers will receive the vaccine. The other half will receive an injection but with no vaccine, a placebo⁷.

 
Dr. Glenda Gray is the head investigator⁸ for the project
The volunteers are encouraged to practice safe sex and are given free condoms and free testing. Anyone who contracts HIV will receive free treatment including anti-retroviral drugs.

Mzimbulu says he volunteered because he wanted to know whether he had HIV. "Yes, I was protecting myself in the past but there was some circumstances. You know life is full of surprises. You can get sick and you don't know what kind of disease it is like."

Organizers urge the volunteers to practice safe sex because nobody wants them to come down with AIDS. But they know that, nevertheless, some will get the virus.

Project Director Busi Siwe Nkala says that after two decades of handing out condoms and preaching safe sex it is clear that these methods are not working. She hopes a vaccine will.

"If the vaccine can be available, people don't have to go through things that they feel are not natural," she says.

The head investigator for the nationwide trials, Dr. Glenda Gray, says this project is important because HIV in Africa, unlike in America, strikes women more than men.

"This trial is also very important because we've enrolled⁹ a lot more women than anywhere else in the world and we believe women may have different immune responses than men and maybe vaccines¹⁰ are more effective in women than in men. And so we will be able to answer the issues around immunity¹¹ and gender¹² in this trial."

She says if the vaccine proves to be even 30 percent effective it will be considered a success.

AIDS carries a heavy stigma¹³ here. Most of the volunteers did not want to have their faces shown. But they all want to know whether they have HIV.

Several of these young people will probably contract HIV. According to statistics only half of them will live to be 60 years old. But if the vaccine is even partially¹⁴ successful their odds¹⁵ of survival will increase significantly.

1 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。

2 promising   

adj.有希望的，有前途的

参考例句：

• The results of the experiments are very promising.实验的结果充满了希望。
• We're trying to bring along one or two promising young swimmers.我们正设法培养出一两名有前途的年轻游泳选手。

3 licensing   

v.批准，许可，颁发执照( license的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• A large part of state regulation consists of occupational licensing. 大部分州的管理涉及行业的特许批准。 来自英汉非文学 - 行政法
• That licensing procedures for projects would move faster. 这样的工程批准程序一定会加快。 来自辞典例句

4 marketing   

n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西

参考例句：

• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
• He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。

5 unemployed   

adj.失业的，没有工作的；未动用的，闲置的

参考例句：

• There are now over four million unemployed workers in this country.这个国家现有四百万失业人员。
• The unemployed hunger for jobs.失业者渴望得到工作。

6 genetically   

adv.遗传上

参考例句：

• All the bees in the colony are genetically related. 同一群体的蜜蜂都有亲缘关系。
• Genetically modified foods have already arrived on American dinner tables. 经基因改造加工过的食物已端上了美国人的餐桌。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 基因与食物

7 placebo   

n.安慰剂；宽慰话

参考例句：

• The placebo has been found to work with a lot of different cases.人们已发现安慰剂能在很多不同的病例中发挥作用。
• The placebo effect refers to all the observable behaviors caused by placebo.安慰剂效应是指由安慰剂所引起的可观察的行为。

8 investigator   

n.研究者，调查者，审查者

参考例句：

• He was a special investigator for the FBI.他是联邦调查局的特别调查员。
• The investigator was able to deduce the crime and find the criminal.调查者能够推出犯罪过程并锁定罪犯。

9 enrolled   

adj.入学登记了的v.[亦作enrol]( enroll的过去式和过去分词 )；登记，招收，使入伍（或入会、入学等），参加，成为成员；记入名册；卷起，包起

参考例句：

• They have been studying hard from the moment they enrolled. 从入学时起，他们就一直努力学习。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He enrolled with an employment agency for a teaching position. 他在职业介绍所登了记以谋求一个教师的职位。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 vaccines   

疫苗，痘苗( vaccine的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His team are at the forefront of scientific research into vaccines. 他的小组处于疫苗科研的最前沿。
• The vaccines were kept cool in refrigerators. 疫苗放在冰箱中冷藏。

11 immunity   

n.优惠；免除；豁免，豁免权

参考例句：

• The law gives public schools immunity from taxation.法律免除公立学校的纳税义务。
• He claims diplomatic immunity to avoid being arrested.他要求外交豁免以便避免被捕。

12 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

13 stigma   

n.耻辱，污名；(花的)柱头

参考例句：

• Being an unmarried mother used to carry a social stigma.做未婚母亲在社会上曾是不光彩的事。
• The stigma of losing weighed heavily on the team.失败的耻辱让整个队伍压力沉重。

14 partially   

adv.部分地，从某些方面讲

参考例句：

• The door was partially concealed by the drapes.门有一部分被门帘遮住了。
• The police managed to restore calm and the curfew was partially lifted.警方设法恢复了平静，宵禁部分解除。

15 odds   

n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别

参考例句：

• The odds are 5 to 1 that she will win.她获胜的机会是五比一。
• Do you know the odds of winning the lottery once?你知道赢得一次彩票的几率多大吗？