VOA英语2010年-Early HIV Treatment Saves Lives

A review of the guidelines for HIV treatment in poor countries finds priority should go to starting that treatment early.

"What we learned from a clinical standpoint, as well as a cost-effective standpoint, is that earlier anti-retroviral therapy improved five-year survival dramatically and resulted in a longer life expectancy," says Rochelle Walensky, an infectious disease researcher from Harvard.

Treatment for HIV has become more widespread, especially in poorer countries. It's also become cheaper, as pharmaceutical¹ companies have lowered their prices for life-saving anti-retroviral drugs. But these drug regimens are still expensive and many countries are looking to create the biggest impact with scarce resources. That's where World Health Organization guidelines come in.

"If you read the guidelines, they talk about how you can prioritize by the need to make sure that everybody gets the same thing," Walensky says, "by the intervention² that's going to save us the most lives. We need to prioritize by the intervention is going to give us the most bang for the buck³ or be most cost-effective."

Walensky and her colleagues used computer programs to model the most cost-effective disease interventions⁴, as well as collected data from clinics in Africa and India about what works best. But cost-effective doesn't always mean affordable⁵, especially for governments in poor countries. Countries still have to make difficult choices about how much treatment they can afford.

However, Walensky notes that first-line anti-retrovirals - those medicine given to newly diagnosed patients that can stave off symptoms for years - are much cheaper than they were a decade ago. "Second-line regimens have come down quite a bit but not to the level of first-line and countries are having a hard time affording them and increasingly over time, people are going to fail first-line therapy and they're going second-line therapy and then, eventually, they're going to need third-line therapy, some of them."

According to Walensky, history has shown that drug prices can come down when international pressure is applied⁶ to drug makers⁷. That would change the calculus⁸ for governments. But for now, she says, countries should focus on treating as many people as they can, as early as possible.

Her paper is published in the online journal PLoS Medicine.

1 pharmaceutical   

adj.药学的，药物的；药用的，药剂师的

参考例句：

• She has donated money to establish a pharmaceutical laboratory.她捐款成立了一个药剂实验室。
• We are engaged in a legal tussle with a large pharmaceutical company.我们正同一家大制药公司闹法律纠纷。

2 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。

3 buck   

n.雄鹿，雄兔；v.马离地跳跃

参考例句：

• The boy bent curiously to the skeleton of the buck.这个男孩好奇地弯下身去看鹿的骸骨。
• The female deer attracts the buck with high-pitched sounds.雌鹿以尖声吸引雄鹿。

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 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

7 makers   

n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式）

参考例句：

• The makers of the product assured us that there had been no sacrifice of quality. 这一产品的制造商向我们保证说他们没有牺牲质量。
• The makers are about to launch out a new product. 制造商们马上要生产一种新产品。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 calculus   

n.微积分；结石

参考例句：

• This is a problem where calculus won't help at all.对于这一题，微积分一点也用不上。
• After studying differential calculus you will be able to solve these mathematical problems.学了微积分之后，你们就能够解这些数学题了。