2007年VOA标准英语-Mali's Children With HIV Are Told They Have Vir

By Nico Colombant
Dakar
08 May 2007

Children in Mali are told when they have HIV

At a hospital in Mali children who are HIV positive are being told about their status at a very young age. Doctors say the new approach helps them get better and protects others from the virus. The program began last December. VOA's Nico Colombant has more from our West Africa bureau in Dakar, with reporting by Julie Vandal at the Gabriel Toure hospital in Bamako.

In a room painted with cartoon characters, children who are HIV positive and their relatives, noisily gather around.

When the group quiets down, doctors hold a question and answer session about their status, in the local Bambara language, using drawings to make the point.

White blood cells, which defend the body from infections, are represented by fighting soldiers.

The children are told about their status in a group, slowly, over the course of several sessions, rather than abruptly¹ and alone.

Doctor Isabelle Traore explains how she breaks the news.

"We tell them we took some of their blood and found a virus. We tell them many people around the world have this virus," she said. "We say, before people used to die from this virus, but now there is a treatment, and some children who were sick, went to university and some of them have their own children. We tell them, it is not because you have a virus, that everything is dark and gloomy. We ask them if they understood. We ask them what they have."

"Some of them say AIDS. We tell them the difference, and that in their current state they do not have AIDS," continued Treore.  "We do all this very slowly. And we try to do in a soothing², friendly atmosphere."

Later, the HIV positive children watch Ivorian dances on video together.

Maimouna, 13, says she is like all the other children her age, even though both her parents died of AIDS.

She says now that she knows what she has, she takes her medication more willingly.

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A West African anti-AIDS slogan "Yes to Life"

She says she wants to be healthy.

Her grandmother says she was relieved by this approach.

She said she was afraid to tell her granddaughter by herself because, she says, in Mali HIV is talked about very badly.

Amadou Toure is also a relative of a patient. His seven-year-old brother has been in the program for two years.

"It is very good that he knows," he says. "He is always asking me for his medication now, because he knows how important it is."

The boy used to dislike the center, but now that he knows about the illness, he likes to play with other children who face the same health challenges.

Pierre Robert, an official with UNICEF Mali who is helping³ to coordinate⁴ the program, says that when the children are informed about HIV, they become more responsible.

"The child becomes responsible for his own health. He is implicated⁵ 100 percent. He knows why he needs to always come back to the hospital and get his blood drawn," said Robert. "After that, he knows to be careful when he begins to be sexually active. We have patients who are now teenagers and already sexually active. And the sooner we tell them, the less dramatic it is. There is a 14-year-old girl recently we told her, and she was angry we had not told her sooner."

The children waiting for their relatives to arrive are singing songs.

Doctors say the most important component⁶ of the program, may be that HIV positive children can find out sooner that it is possible to live a happy, productive life, even with a chronic⁷ infection.

1 abruptly   

adv.突然地，出其不意地

参考例句：

• He gestured abruptly for Virginia to get in the car.他粗鲁地示意弗吉尼亚上车。
• I was abruptly notified that a half-hour speech was expected of me.我突然被通知要讲半个小时的话。

2 soothing   

adj.慰藉的；使人宽心的；镇静的

参考例句：

• Put on some nice soothing music.播放一些柔和舒缓的音乐。
• His casual, relaxed manner was very soothing.他随意而放松的举动让人很快便平静下来。

3 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

4 coordinate   

adj.同等的，协调的；n.同等者；vt.协作，协调

参考例句：

• You must coordinate what you said with what you did.你必须使你的言行一致。
• Maybe we can coordinate the relation of them.或许我们可以调和他们之间的关系。

5 implicated   

adj.密切关联的；牵涉其中的

参考例句：

• These groups are very strongly implicated in the violence. 这些组织与这起暴力事件有着极大的关联。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Having the stolen goods in his possession implicated him in the robbery. 因藏有赃物使他涉有偷盗的嫌疑。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

6 component   

n.组成部分，成分，元件；adj.组成的，合成的

参考例句：

• Each component is carefully checked before assembly.每个零件在装配前都经过仔细检查。
• Blade and handle are the component parts of a knife.刀身和刀柄是一把刀的组成部分。

7 chronic   

adj.(疾病)长期未愈的，慢性的；极坏的

参考例句：

• Famine differs from chronic malnutrition.饥荒不同于慢性营养不良。
• Chronic poisoning may lead to death from inanition.慢性中毒也可能由虚弱导致死亡。