VOA标准英语2010年-Dual Infections Of TB And AIDS Make Ea

 

Tuberculosis¹ infects nearly ten million people each year and kills nearly two million. It is primarily a lung disease that spreads easily among people with weakened immune systems. Sub-Saharan Africa is still the epicenter of the HIV/AIDS disaster, but it is also becoming the epicenter of tuberculosis.

In Lesotho, a small country in southern Africa, only one in four people is infected with HIV. But that is only one of the threats to health in nation.

"What we also see is a huge co-infection rate. So of all our TB  patients, between 80 to 90 percent of them also have HIV," said Helen Bygrave, who is with Doctors without Borders.

Tuberculosis easily infects patients whose immune systems are weakened by HIV.

It spreads when a person coughs, speaks or spits. Those with AIDS have no protection against it. 

TB has become the number one killer² of African AIDS patients. "We treat it as a dual³ epidemic⁴. We call it 'double trouble,'" Bygrave said.

The dual epidemics⁵ are fueled by crowded conditions.

Pulmonologist Dr. Lee Reichman has worked to control TB for 40 years. "TB spreads wherever people are close together and they share air for a considerable length of time," Reichman said.

When people infected with TB fail to take all of their medicine, tuberculosis can become resistant⁶ to the drugs commonly used to fight it. 

Dr. Reichman says it doesn't have to be this way. "Multi-drug resistant TB and extensively drug resistant TB are failures of the system. TB is treatable and preventable.  And if we find TB properly and treat TB properly, a) they are cured, and b), they don't develop drug resistant TB, whether it be multi-drug or extensive drug," he said.

A lot has to change to turn the situation around. Dr. Reichman says because TB is highly contagious⁷, and because it co-exists with other infectious diseases, all countries, rich and poor need to pay attention. "Because TB is everybody's problem, and to control TB anywhere, you have to control TB everywhere," he said.

Eradicating⁸ TB by 2015 is one of the millennium⁹ goals of the World Health Organization.

In Lesotho, the task is enormous. But if it doesn't happen, experts warn, drug resistant TB will become far more common everywhere.

 

1 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。

2 killer   

n.杀人者，杀人犯，杀手，屠杀者

参考例句：

• Heart attacks have become Britain's No.1 killer disease.心脏病已成为英国的头号致命疾病。
• The bulk of the evidence points to him as her killer.大量证据证明是他杀死她的。

3 dual   

adj.双的；二重的，二元的

参考例句：

• The people's Republic of China does not recognize dual nationality for any Chinese national.中华人民共和国不承认中国公民具有双重国籍。
• He has dual role as composer and conductor.他兼作曲家及指挥的双重身分。

4 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。

5 epidemics   

n．流行病

参考例句：

• Reliance upon natural epidemics may be both time-consuming and misleading. 依靠天然的流行既浪费时间，又会引入歧途。
• The antibiotic epidemics usually start stop when the summer rainy season begins. 传染病通常会在夏天的雨季停止传播。

6 resistant   

adj.(to)抵抗的，有抵抗力的

参考例句：

• Many pests are resistant to the insecticide.许多害虫对这种杀虫剂有抵抗力。
• They imposed their government by force on the resistant population.他们以武力把自己的统治强加在持反抗态度的人民头上。

7 contagious   

adj.传染性的，有感染力的

参考例句：

• It's a highly contagious infection.这种病极易传染。
• He's got a contagious laugh.他的笑富有感染力。

8 eradicating   

摧毁，完全根除( eradicate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Objective: To study the acute and chronic toxicity of Ten-flavor-acne eradicating-capsule. 目的：探讨复方中药合剂十味平痤胶囊的急性及慢性毒性。
• We are on the verge of eradicating polio in the world. 我们已在世界消除小儿？痹症的边缘了。

9 millennium   

n.一千年，千禧年；太平盛世

参考例句：

• The whole world was counting down to the new millennium.全世界都在倒计时迎接新千年的到来。
• We waited as the clock ticked away the last few seconds of the old millennium.我们静候着时钟滴答走过千年的最后几秒钟。