2007年VOA标准英语-Liberia's TB Victims, Doctors Cry Out For Help,

By Nico Colombant
Dakar
09 May 2007

Victims of tuberculosis¹ in Liberia, as well as their doctors, are crying out for more help from their government and the international community. Funds Liberia was receiving from the Geneva-based Global Fund to fight tuberculosis and malaria² have not been renewed. VOA's Nico Colombant has more from Dakar, with reporting by Prince Collins, at the tuberculosis treatment center in Monrovia.

Dozens of patients mill about inside Monrovia's National tuberculosis annex³ building, fighting off the curable but deadly and contagious⁴ respiratory illness, awaiting food and medicine.

Patient Morris Fofana needs medicine

"My name is Morris Fofana," says a patient. "We are here at TB annex, but really the conditions are really bad, the government needs to help us, the conditions are too bad, no one takes care of us, nobody takes care of the patients."

Doctors like Samuel Toe, are trying hard, and say they are doing what they can with what they have to help their patients.

"As you know, a lot of people in Liberia have come down with the disease," he said. "Access for treatment, for them, still remains⁵ a risk because of the lack of funding, so it really poses a serious problem to treating TB patients in Liberia."

Estimates are that about 17,000 Liberians have what is known as "TB", but only about 4,500 are receiving treatment.

The Global Fund was helping⁶ Liberia with its control program, but a two-year funding cycle ended earlier this year.

Doctor Toe says he sees more and more patients trying to get help.

"Almost every day, there is a new case from the community. So indeed if funding is lacking, then it will indeed serve as a setback⁷ to fighting TB in Liberia," he said.

The program's manager, Lawuo Gwesa, says many times family members abandon their sick relatives here, and do not help either. She says she sometimes uses her own money.

"Everybody needs love," she said. "When somebody is sick, do not desert them. It could be you. Most of them here, most of them, I take my own money and buy drugs for them because people do not come and visit them. They feel abandoned."

She says her program is running out of money to buy gas for motorcycles used to deliver medicine to other patients throughout Liberia.

Gas is also needed for laboratory generators⁸ and safeguarding medicine.

Gwesa says tuberculosis is a disease of poverty.

"Because of the war we fought, we have been in poor living conditions," she explained. "People have been living in small places. It is an airborne disease, and because of all this we have an increase. And also the HIV, we have more infected patients here who have the HIV and they have the TB, so because of the pandemic of HIV, TB cases are also increasing, so it is really due to poverty and poor living conditions of the people."

Funds are needed for Liberia's TB program

Liberia is still getting millions of dollars to fight HIV/AIDS. In late March, the United Nations Development Program which helps Liberia's government in managing and spending the money, announced a new million $12 million agreement from the Global Fund to combat HIV/AIDS.

An official at the Global Fund, Mark Willis, explained from Geneva, difficulties in working with previous governments created the gap in funding for malaria and tuberculosis.

"The original grants for both tuberculosis and malaria were written during a period of instability. So at the time, the grants were only for two years, whereas a normal funding cycle would be five years," said Willis. "In the meantime, the government of Liberia submitted different applications that were not accepted because of their quality and again it was during a time of previous governmental arrangements and perhaps that contributed to the quality of the reports."

Willis says he has been encouraged by the work of the new Health Ministry⁹ under President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf.

The United Nations Development Program in Liberia consults the government on how to write the reports, and says government officials recently received training on writing better reports.

The new reports are due shortly, and new funding could begin before the end of the year. Once reports are accepted, however, getting money is not automatic.

Willis says while there has been interest from donors¹⁰ to help Liberia combat malaria, there does not seem to be much interest so far concerning tuberculosis.

In the past five years, the Global Fund's Web site says it has committed more than $7 billion spread over 136 countries to support interventions¹¹ against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

1 tuberculosis   

n.结核病，肺结核

参考例句：

• People used to go to special health spring to recover from tuberculosis.人们常去温泉疗养胜地治疗肺结核。
• Tuberculosis is a curable disease.肺结核是一种可治愈的病。

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 annex   

vt.兼并，吞并；n.附属建筑物

参考例句：

• It plans to annex an England company in order to enlarge the market.它计划兼并一家英国公司以扩大市场。
• The annex has been built on to the main building.主楼配建有附属的建筑物。

4 contagious   

adj.传染性的，有感染力的

参考例句：

• It's a highly contagious infection.这种病极易传染。
• He's got a contagious laugh.他的笑富有感染力。

5 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

6 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。

7 setback   

n.退步，挫折，挫败

参考例句：

• Since that time there has never been any setback in his career.从那时起他在事业上一直没有遇到周折。
• She views every minor setback as a disaster.她把每个较小的挫折都看成重大灾难。

8 generators   

n.发电机，发生器( generator的名词复数 )；电力公司

参考例句：

• The factory's emergency generators were used during the power cut. 工厂应急发电机在停电期间用上了。
• Power can be fed from wind generators into the electricity grid system. 电力可以从风力发电机流入输电网。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

10 donors   

n.捐赠者( donor的名词复数 )；献血者；捐血者；器官捐献者

参考例句：

• Please email us to be removed from our active list of blood donors. 假如你想把自己的名字从献血联系人名单中删去，请给我们发电子邮件。
• About half this amount comes from individual donors and bequests. 这笔钱大约有一半来自个人捐赠及遗赠。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 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