VOA标准英语2008年-UN Reports Children's Lives Are Improving

By Lisa Schlein
Geneva
22 January 2008

The UN Children's Fund says good progress has been made in saving children's lives. UNICEF, which has just launched its annual State of the World's Children's Report, says many more children's lives can be saved by using available simple, low cost tools and involving local communities in providing essential health services to mothers and children. Lisa Schlein was at the launch of the UNICEF report in Geneva and has this report for VOA.

In 2006, for the first time since world data have been collected, UNICEF estimates the total number of global deaths of children under age five fell below 10 million. It notes this is a 60 percent drop in the rate of child mortality since 1960.

But UNICEF says much more needs to be done, especially in sub-Sahara Africa. UNICEF Executive Director Ann Veneman says about one half of child deaths around the world occur in Africa.

"Based on 2006 statistics, a child born in sub-Saharan Africa has a one in six chance of dying before the age of five. An estimated four million babies die each year in their first month of life and up to half of these deaths occur in the first 24 hours. Many of these babies die at home without access to essential health services that might have saved their lives," she said.

In absolute numbers, UNICEF reports most deaths among newborns occur in South Asia. It notes Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia together account for 80 percent of all under-five mortality.

The report finds more children die in countries affected¹ by conflict and those with high prevalence of HIV/AIDS.

Veneman says the health of the child is directly linked to the health of the mother. "As we all know a healthy mother is more likely to have a healthy child. Over 500,000 women die from pregnancy² or childbirth-related complications every year. In some cases because they face major obstacles in getting care," she said.

Veneman tells VOA providing essential integrated health services at the community level greatly increases the chance of saving the lives of both mother and child. She says many of the interventions⁴ that are available are effective and affordable⁵.

"Basic antibiotics⁶ for pneumonia⁷, oral re-hydration therapy, a very low cost intervention³ for diarrheal diseases. Breast-feeding and making sure mothers really do breast-feed their children for the first six months of their lives. Basic immunizations which really-most countries do now have access to. Vitamin A supplementation again not very expensive, but very important to a child," he said.

She says it is important to train more community health workers so they can provide many of these low cost life-saving tools to the mothers and their children.

1 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

2 pregnancy   

n.怀孕，怀孕期

参考例句：

• Early pregnancy is often accompanied by nausea.怀孕早期常有恶心的现象。
• Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of miscarriage.怀孕期吸烟会增加流产的危险。

3 intervention   

n.介入，干涉，干预

参考例句：

• The government's intervention in this dispute will not help.政府对这场争论的干预不会起作用。
• Many people felt he would be hostile to the idea of foreign intervention.许多人觉得他会反对外来干预。

4 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

5 affordable   

adj.支付得起的，不太昂贵的

参考例句：

• The rent for the four-roomed house is affordable.四居室房屋的房租付得起。
• There are few affordable apartments in big cities.在大城市中没有几所公寓是便宜的。

6 antibiotics   

n.（用作复数）抗生素；（用作单数）抗生物质的研究；抗生素，抗菌素( antibiotic的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• the discovery of antibiotics in the 20th century 20世纪抗生素的发现
• The doctor gave me a prescription for antibiotics. 医生给我开了抗生素。

7 pneumonia   

n.肺炎

参考例句：

• Cage was struck with pneumonia in her youth.凯奇年轻时得过肺炎。
• Pneumonia carried him off last week.肺炎上星期夺去了他的生命。