2007年VOA标准英语-Report: AIDS Treatment Targets Hampered by Lack

By Tendai Maphosa
London
18 July 2007

Global AIDS treatment will fall far short of a target to have five million people in Africa being treated in the next few years. A new report reveals that the continued lack of access to drugs by many of the world's impoverished¹ people is the cause of the shortfall. Tendai Maphosa has more in this report for VOA from London.

 

The report by the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition² analyzed³ AIDS treatment in 17 countries, nine of them in Africa. In its report "Missing the Target", it found that free HIV treatment is not reaching people in many poor countries.

It said, while increasing numbers of people are being treated for HIV, there remains⁴ serious challenges with marginalized people, inequitable access to care for rural populations and children, a lack of transportation, the stigma⁵ of being diagnosed, and the high cost of drugs.

Although 700,000 more people with HIV received treatment in 2007, the pace needs to accelerate, the report said. Tripling the annual growth rate of treatment access is necessary to meet the goals set by the Group of Eight industrialized nations.

In June, the G-8 set a target of providing AIDS drugs during the next few years to approximately five million people in Africa.

A teleconference was held with authors of the report from Uganda, Malawi, and Zimbabwe.

The Malawian contributor to the report said some progress has been made but there are still a lot of challenges. Martha Kwataine said about 85,000 out of the 220,000 who need treatment are now getting it.

She added that access to prevention of mother-to-child transmission programs should be expanded.

Kwataine also said because of poor working conditions and pay, Malawi is experiencing a critical shortage of health workers who are emigrating. And she says in an effort to retain workers, hospitals are charging more for services such as the CD-4 blood count.

"We also we also got from people living with HIV and AIDS that some of them are actually charged user fees to access a CD-4 count. But most of the hospitals they do not have CD-4 counting machines. So because people can only start accessing [AIDS retroviral treatment] after going through CD-4 count, you can have other people dying because they are delaying to start [treatment] because have not had a chance to go through a CD-4 count," she said.

Zimbabwe, because of its political and economic problems has unique challenges. Despite its success in lowering its rate of HIV infection, the government is failing to meet its own targets.

 

"Zimbabwe is one of the few African countries that are internally manufacturing [retroviral drugs], albeit⁶ on a small scale. Unfortunately it is undermined by foreign currency shortages, because most of the components⁷ that are required to manufacture drugs internally require foreign currency to be purchased from outside the country," said Matilda Moyo, who co-authored the Zimbabwe portion of the report.

 

 

The report also asks UNAIDS and the World Health Organization to be more outspoken⁸ when national programs are mismanaged, targets are not met or vulnerable populations neglected. It also urges the agencies to develop plans to eliminate drug shortages, provide CD-4 and other testing technologies, and integrate HIV prevention and TB services.

1 impoverished   

adj.穷困的，无力的，用尽了的v.使（某人）贫穷( impoverish的过去式和过去分词 )；使（某物）贫瘠或恶化

参考例句：

• the impoverished areas of the city 这个城市的贫民区
• They were impoverished by a prolonged spell of unemployment. 他们因长期失业而一贫如洗。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 coalition   

n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合

参考例句：

• The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
• Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。

3 analyzed   

v.分析( analyze的过去式和过去分词 )；分解；解释；对…进行心理分析

参考例句：

• The doctors analyzed the blood sample for anemia. 医生们分析了贫血的血样。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The young man did not analyze the process of his captivation and enrapturement, for love to him was a mystery and could not be analyzed. 这年轻人没有分析自己蛊惑著迷的过程，因为对他来说，爱是个不可分析的迷。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 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。

5 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。

6 albeit   

conj.即使；纵使；虽然

参考例句：

• Albeit fictional,she seemed to have resolved the problem.虽然是虚构的，但是在她看来好象是解决了问题。
• Albeit he has failed twice,he is not discouraged.虽然失败了两次，但他并没有气馁。

7 components   

（机器、设备等的）构成要素，零件，成分； 成分( component的名词复数 )； [物理化学]组分； [数学]分量； （混合物的）组成部分

参考例句：

• the components of a machine 机器部件
• Our chemistry teacher often reduces a compound to its components in lab. 在实验室中化学老师常把化合物分解为各种成分。

8 outspoken   

adj.直言无讳的，坦率的，坦白无隐的

参考例句：

• He was outspoken in his criticism.他在批评中直言不讳。
• She is an outspoken critic of the school system in this city.她是这座城市里学校制度的坦率的批评者。