2007年VOA标准英语-African Health Officials Cautiously Welcome G8

By Phuong Tran
Dakar
08 June 2007

Health officials in Africa are reacting cautiously to the pledge of more aid money from G8 nations to tackle major diseases on the continent.  They say managing the huge sums of money remains¹ a problem. Phuong Tran has more from VOA's Central and West African Bureau in Dakar.

G-8 leaders are seen during a working meeting in Heiligendamm June 7, 2007

On the closing day of the G8 meeting in Germany, leaders of the world's richest countries pledged $60 billion in the coming years to fight AIDS, malaria² and tuberculosis³ in Africa.

Some of the money overlaps⁴ with earlier pledges by the United States and international donors⁵.

Lusamba Pikassa, a director at the World Health Organization's regional office for Africa in Congo, says Africans need the money for life-saving drugs, decaying laboratories, and training for new health workers.

"We are losing the best human resources," he said.  "They go because of the conflict and all the problems related to working conditions. They prefer to migrate."

He says staffing clinics with new medicines, equipment, and people is not enough to solve the continent's health problems.

"Part of the amount should be used to ensure that we have in place health systems that can not only manage those funds, but also ensure that the population has access to care, that there is transparency and no corruption," he added. 

Another concern Pikassa has with the proposed aid is how to make it last.

"It is very good for the G8 to provide these funds, which will be very helpful.  But that needs to be sustained over time and we need to ensure the states themselves are able to [raise] these kinds of resources," he explained.

Ibra Ndoye, director of the National AIDS Council of Senegal, says he hopes G8 leaders will honor the pledge for health aid.

Ndoye says without the funds, it will be difficult to fund prevention activities that he says have helped keep the rate of HIV infection relatively⁶ low in Senegal, at less than two percent for the population.

The promise to boost health care funding comes on top of an earlier G8 pledge to double aid to Africa by the year 2010. Economists⁷ have said the world's wealthiest industrial nations are not giving enough to meet their goal.

African Union president and President of Ghana John Kufuor has said he hopes the G8 leaders will honor their pledges, and that in return, Africans will work to manage the increased aid.

1 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。

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 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。

4 overlaps   

v.部分重叠( overlap的第三人称单数 )；（物体）部份重叠；交叠；（时间上）部份重叠

参考例句：

• The style in these two books largely overlaps. 这两本书的文体有许多处是一致的。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• The new office overlaps the functions of the one already in existence. 新机构的职能与那个现存机构的职能部分重叠。 来自辞典例句

5 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》

6 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

7 economists   

n.经济学家，经济专家( economist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The sudden rise in share prices has confounded economists. 股价的突然上涨使经济学家大惑不解。
• Foreign bankers and economists cautiously welcomed the minister's initiative. 外国银行家和经济学家对部长的倡议反应谨慎。 来自《简明英汉词典》