VOA标准英语2009年-Experts Study Challenges to Anti-Retrovira

By Scott Bobb
Johannesburg
18 September 2009

Experts in the battle against HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases have met in Pretoria, South Africa to discuss ways to more effectively deliver Anti-Retroviral (ARV) medicine. Many believe improving ARV delivery systems would also help victims of other infectious diseases.

A conference sponsored by the Anti-Retroviral Access for Africa organization, is focusing primarily on challenges to delivering ARV's to victims of HIV/AIDS.

But organizers noted¹ similar challenges face those trying to help victims of tuberculosis², malaria³ and other infectious diseases. They suggested that developing better systems to fight AIDS would also help the struggle against other diseases.

Project manager Estinah Chidzanira of ARV Access for Africa, which stockpiles and delivers medicine to African governments experiencing unexpected shortages, says such shortfalls often occur because of lack of information. "The major problem that we currently face is accurately⁴ focusing and quantifying what (medicines) a country requires. And the main reason for that is we do not have enough information. Even if we had, that information is not reliable," she said.

Chidzanira says governments need to establish reliable systems to determine who needs anti-retroviral medicine. "Once you know where the (sick) people are you quantify and see how much they require. And then they (governments) have to work with an organization with expertise⁵ in distribution and logistics. Then they will be able to send the items to the places where they are required," she said.

But she says many government health ministries⁶ lack the human resources and expertise to carry out the research and logistics needed for a successful ARV program.

Another problem is ensuring medicine sent to Africa is of good quality, has been approved for use in that country, and is used before it expires.

Jennifer Erie is a program manager with Supply Chain Management System, which helps African governments build agencies to oversee⁷ sustainable supplies of good medicines. "They (governments) can set up quality systems such as pre-qualification requirements, vetting⁸ suppliers, making sure you check their dossiers, to make sure that they are doing their own quality testing. And if your country cannot afford to do your own quality testing, (you can) refer to other organizations across the continent that have done the testing and refer to their testing evaluations," she said.

She says some countries, like South Africa are relatively⁹ efficient at licensing¹⁰ medicines, but others find it challenging. "We are working hand in hand with regulatory authorities in countries to help build their capacity. We try to bring in efficiencies to show them how within their process they can reduce time and cost to process more applications so that they create a bigger pool of medicines available that can be registered locally," she said.

The head of South Africa's HIV Clinicians Society, Francois Venter, says the obstacles to effectively delivering ARV's vary from country to country. "In some countries, corruption¹¹ is a problem. In other countries just not having the management systems to deal with distribution-of-medication or provision-of-services is an issue. In South Africa the problem is systems failure, that we have enough money, but we do not have the systems to administer it in a cost-effective manner," Venter said.

He notes that donor¹² fatigue¹³ is also a problem, but says African governments can counter this by devoting more resources to health care. "When we throw up our hands and say we are a poor country, we need more resources, we need donors¹⁴ to come to the table there must be recognition of the fact that we have taken choices. We have funded other projects, grand projects, over and above the health of our people. And we need to take some personal political responsibility for the fact that we need to increase amounts of money that we are actually giving to the health system," he said.

He notes that African governments have signed a declaration pledging to dedicate 15 percent of their budgets to health care. But he says even the richest of them have only reached about half of that goal at best.

1 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

2 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。

3 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。

4 accurately   

adv.准确地，精确地

参考例句：

• It is hard to hit the ball accurately.准确地击中球很难。
• Now scientists can forecast the weather accurately.现在科学家们能准确地预报天气。

5 expertise   

n.专门知识(或技能等)，专长

参考例句：

• We were amazed at his expertise on the ski slopes.他斜坡滑雪的技能使我们赞叹不已。
• You really have the technical expertise in a new breakthrough.让你真正在专业技术上有一个全新的突破。

6 ministries   

（政府的）部( ministry的名词复数 )； 神职； 牧师职位； 神职任期

参考例句：

• Local authorities must refer everything to the central ministries. 地方管理机构应请示中央主管部门。
• The number of Ministries has been pared down by a third. 部委的数量已经减少了1/3。

7 oversee   

vt.监督，管理

参考例句：

• Soldiers oversee the food handouts.士兵们看管着救济食品。
• Use a surveyor or architect to oversee and inspect the different stages of the work.请一位房产检视员或建筑师来监督并检查不同阶段的工作。

8 vetting   

n.数据检查[核对，核实]v.审查（某人过去的记录、资格等）( vet的现在分词 )；调查；检查；诊疗

参考例句：

• Scripts had to be submitted to Ministry of Information officials for vetting. 必须把脚本提交给信息部官员审查。 来自互联网
• Their purpose in clicking deeper into a site is one of vetting. 他们深入点击网站的目的是一种诊疗。 来自互联网

9 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。

10 licensing   

v.批准，许可，颁发执照( license的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• A large part of state regulation consists of occupational licensing. 大部分州的管理涉及行业的特许批准。 来自英汉非文学 - 行政法
• That licensing procedures for projects would move faster. 这样的工程批准程序一定会加快。 来自辞典例句

11 corruption   

n.腐败，堕落，贪污

参考例句：

• The people asked the government to hit out against corruption and theft.人民要求政府严惩贪污盗窃。
• The old man reviled against corruption.那老人痛斥了贪污舞弊。

12 donor   

n.捐献者；赠送人；(组织、器官等的)供体

参考例句：

• In these cases,the recipient usually takes care of the donor afterwards.在这类情况下，接受捐献者以后通常会照顾捐赠者。
• The Doctor transplanted the donor's heart to Mike's chest cavity.医生将捐赠者的心脏移植进麦克的胸腔。

13 fatigue   

n.疲劳，劳累

参考例句：

• The old lady can't bear the fatigue of a long journey.这位老妇人不能忍受长途旅行的疲劳。
• I have got over my weakness and fatigue.我已从虚弱和疲劳中恢复过来了。

14 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》