VOA标准英语2011--Rwanda Doctors Treat Children with Help from US Specialists

Rwanda Doctors Treat Children with Help from US Specialists

 

Children with cancer in Rwanda are getting specialized¹ care thanks to a partnership² with doctors in the United States, helping³ to save lives in an area with limited resources.

In advanced Western medical centers, children with cancer can often be treated successfully. But it usually takes advanced medicines and equipment and, perhaps most importantly, pediatric oncologists who have the specialized training to diagnose and treat their very young patients.

In poor countries, supplies and facilities and expertise⁴ may be limited.

Rwanda does not have a single trained pediatric oncologist. So a doctor working in Rwanda with the American NGO Partners in Health linked local doctors and nurses with U.S. cancer specialists. Sara Stulac's idea was to send biopsies of suspected cancer cases to Boston, where specialists would confirm diagnosis⁵ and plan treatment, which would then be done in Rwanda.

Leslie Lehmann, of Harvard Medical School, described 10 young lymphoma patients treated at Rwinkwavu hospital in eastern Rwanda. Half of the patients survived; the rest died from the disease or from complications of treatment.

Sara Stulac (right), consults with colleagues at the Rwinkwavu Hospital in Eastern Rwanda. Stulac, director of pediatrics for Partners In Health, has designed a program which brings Rwandan physicians together with Boston-based pediatric oncologists.

"Had they been treated in America there would have been about a 70-80 percent disease-free survival. We ended up with 50 percent," Lehmann said. "So, not as good. I don't think we would have expected it to be as good. But not terrible, and I think what we know is that without treatment, all of these children would have died."

Lehmann says this was not some expensive, high-tech⁶ telemedicine arrangement.

The main use of technology is regular telephone conferences between the specialists in the U.S. and the care team in Rwanda. "And number two, people will take pictures on their cell phones and send them, of different rashes and stuff, send them by email, but that's sort of the highest tech thing that we have, for better or for worse."

Lehmann says, for now at least, the program is focusing on lymphoma and a few other cancers that are both common and not too complex to treat.

She stresses that this is a partnership between the American and Rwandan doctors. She uses the term "twinning," which underscores the importance of both groups in treating the young patients.

"What makes it equal is that we have Rwandan doctors actually on the ground. And so what they're bringing is both the minute-by-minute evaluation⁷ of the patients that [the American doctors] don't have at all, and their understanding of the deeper context. That's the part that they bring, and then we bring the specialized medical knowledge."

Lehmann says there are not enough trained specialists in the world, but that partnerships⁸ like this might be one way to bridge the gap.

1 specialized   

adj.专门的，专业化的

参考例句：

• There are many specialized agencies in the United Nations.联合国有许多专门机构。
• These tools are very specialized.这些是专用工具。

2 partnership   

n.合作关系，伙伴关系

参考例句：

• The company has gone into partnership with Swiss Bank Corporation.这家公司已经和瑞士银行公司建立合作关系。
• Martin has taken him into general partnership in his company.马丁已让他成为公司的普通合伙人。

3 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

4 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。

5 diagnosis   

n.诊断，诊断结果，调查分析，判断

参考例句：

• His symptoms gave no obvious pointer to a possible diagnosis.他的症状无法作出明确的诊断。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做一次彻底的调查分析。

6 high-tech   

adj.高科技的

参考例句：

• The economy is in the upswing which makes high-tech services in more demand too.经济在蓬勃发展，这就使对高科技服务的需求量也在加大。
• The quest of a cure for disease with high-tech has never ceased. 人们希望运用高科技治疗疾病的追求从未停止过。

7 evaluation   

n.估价，评价；赋值

参考例句：

• I attempted an honest evaluation of my own life.我试图如实地评价我自己的一生。
• The new scheme is still under evaluation.新方案还在评估阶段。

8 partnerships   

n.伙伴关系( partnership的名词复数 )；合伙人身份；合作关系

参考例句：

• Partnerships suffer another major disadvantage: decision-making is shared. 合伙企业的另一主要缺点是决定要由大家来作。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件
• It involved selling off limited partnerships. 它涉及到售出有限的合伙权。 来自辞典例句