VOA标准英语2010-Health Officials Learn From H1N1 Pandemic

A full year has passed since epidemic¹ experts began tracking the H1N1 virus that was also known as swine flu.  The pandemic is over for now, but the virus is still active. Both the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control are reviewing their responses.

Last year at this time, governments around the world intensified² efforts to contain a deadly flu virus that killed scores of people in Mexico and quickly spread around the world.

Late last April, World Health Organization Director-General Margaret Chan warned that a pandemic was imminent³ and the time to prepare for it was short.

"Certain actions should now be undertaken with increased urgency and at an accelerated pace," she stated.

It was the first flu pandemic in more than four decades.

"There was a lot about this new virus that we didn't know," said Dr. Stephen Redd, who headed the H1N1 flu response at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.

Health officials did not know how deadly the virus would be, who would be most vulnerable, how quickly it would spread and whether it could be contained.

"In the early days, the first few cases in the U.S. had recovered by the time they were diagnosed. But the information we had from Mexico, the first cases were all from people who had died," he recalled.

Health officials had been preparing for a flu epidemic for years, but viruses do not follow a plan.

"In our pandemic work, we were really focusing on the avian influenza⁴, mostly in Asia and Africa, so the assumption that the next pandemic would start overseas, far from the U.S., turned out not to be true," Dr. Redd said.

Dr. Redd says one of the things health officials learned is that the global surveillance system needs to be even more comprehensive. He says communication was a major factor in containing the virus. "Keeping everybody up to speed with what we were doing, what we were learning, what the key issues were. That was extremely important," he stated.

Even high-level officials demonstrated ways to prevent the flu from spreading. Such as washing of hands, coughing into sleeve and throwing away tissues once used.

Flu vaccines⁶ are not difficult to produce, but the drug companies found this virus difficult to grow. Dr. Anthony Fauci with the National Institutes of Health expressed frustration⁷ with the slowness of the process. "You really can't do anything when you have a virus that doesn't grow well except trying to wiggle it around to get it grow better," he said.

Many experts say there has to be a better way to produce vaccines.

Stephen Morrison is an authority on global health policy at a Washington research center. "Production of vaccines remain highly uncertain and antiquated," Morrison said.  He says better technologies need to be developed to speed up production.

Demand drew scores of people to vaccination⁸ clinics in the U.S. But there was no plan for distributing a pandemic level vaccine⁵ in the U.S. or anywhere.

The new virus led to patterns of death and illness not normally seen in influenza infections.

"In the normal flu season, 90 percent of the deaths occur in people over 65. In this outbreak, close to 90 percent occurred in people under 65," Dr. Redd said.

In 2009, the H1N1 virus killed more than 16,000 people worldwide. Some critics say the World Health Organization overstated the impact of H1N1... that it was really a mild pandemic.

Dr. Redd disagrees. "It had a tremendous impact on children and adults with chronic⁹ medical conditions so it would be a mistake to characterize the pandemic as being mild," he said.

Dr. Redd says H1N1 is still a threat and he expects it to be the dominant¹⁰ flu virus in the southern hemisphere in the coming flu season.
 

1 epidemic   

n.流行病；盛行；adj.流行性的，流传极广的

参考例句：

• That kind of epidemic disease has long been stamped out.那种传染病早已绝迹。
• The authorities tried to localise the epidemic.当局试图把流行病限制在局部范围。

2 intensified   

v.（使）增强， （使）加剧( intensify的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Violence intensified during the night. 在夜间暴力活动加剧了。
• The drought has intensified. 旱情加剧了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 imminent   

adj.即将发生的，临近的，逼近的

参考例句：

• The black clounds show that a storm is imminent.乌云预示暴风雨即将来临。
• The country is in imminent danger.国难当头。

4 influenza   

n.流行性感冒，流感

参考例句：

• They took steps to prevent the spread of influenza.他们采取措施
• Influenza is an infectious disease.流感是一种传染病。

5 vaccine   

n.牛痘苗，疫苗；adj.牛痘的，疫苗的

参考例句：

• The polio vaccine has saved millions of lives.脊髓灰质炎疫苗挽救了数以百万计的生命。
• She takes a vaccine against influenza every fall.她每年秋季接种流感疫苗。

6 vaccines   

疫苗，痘苗( vaccine的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His team are at the forefront of scientific research into vaccines. 他的小组处于疫苗科研的最前沿。
• The vaccines were kept cool in refrigerators. 疫苗放在冰箱中冷藏。

7 frustration   

n.挫折，失败，失效，落空

参考例句：

• He had to fight back tears of frustration.他不得不强忍住失意的泪水。
• He beat his hands on the steering wheel in frustration.他沮丧地用手打了几下方向盘。

8 vaccination   

n.接种疫苗，种痘

参考例句：

• Vaccination is a preventive against smallpox.种痘是预防天花的方法。
• Doctors suggest getting a tetanus vaccination every ten years.医生建议每十年注射一次破伤风疫苗。

9 chronic   

adj.(疾病)长期未愈的，慢性的；极坏的

参考例句：

• Famine differs from chronic malnutrition.饥荒不同于慢性营养不良。
• Chronic poisoning may lead to death from inanition.慢性中毒也可能由虚弱导致死亡。

10 dominant   

adj.支配的，统治的；占优势的；显性的；n.主因，要素，主要的人(或物)；显性基因

参考例句：

• The British were formerly dominant in India.英国人从前统治印度。
• She was a dominant figure in the French film industry.她在法国电影界是个举足轻重的人物。