VOA标准英语2011--Reflections on 30 Years of HIV/AIDS

Reflections on 30 Years of HIV/AIDS

The HIV/AIDS epidemic¹ is 30 years old. Nearly 30 million people have died from complications of the disease and more than 33 million are currently living with it. There's a better chance than ever of living a long, productive life despite infection. But there's still no cure or vaccine². The top U.S. official on HIV/AIDS talked recently about the early days of the epidemic and the progress that's been made since then.
On June 5, 1981, the first official cases of HIV/AIDS were reported in the United States among gay men in Los Angeles. The disease was around long before that. It's just that no one knew what it was or what to call it. It was already taking a toll³ in Africa, where it was called slim disease. That's because people lost so much weight before they died.
Ambassador Eric Goosby is the U.S. Global AIDS coordinator⁴ and is in charge of PEPFAR, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. But it wasn't always so. In the beginning of the epidemic, Dr. Goosby worked in San Francisco, where a lot of gay men started showing up in the emergency room.
"I wanted to treat diseases that I could cure. Not chronic⁵, progressive diseases, but diseases I could throw an antiretroviral drug at it or an antibiotic⁶ and end it. And the first group of physicians and nurses that cared for populations who were HIV impacted was mostly infectious-disease-oriented mindsets that came at it, not kind of oncology, hospice, chronic progress disease types," he said.
He had 500 HIV/AIDS patients during his years in San Francisco. All 500 died.
"During a period of no effective antiretroviral therapy, we got very good at diagnosing and treating opportunities infections early. One infection, two infections, usually three or four infections and then the fourth or fifth one would take the patient," he said.
Nothing worked
Goosby asked, "Was this a failure in my ability to be a physician? Was I failing the patient and the family that went through the death with the patient that I was caring for?"
When he met his patients, he knew he would be with them until they died. After seven years of this, it took a toll on Goosby and his colleagues.
"We all began to have more emotional liability than any of us had ever had before. I can remember seeing a stray dog on the street would upset me in a way that was disproportionate to what it should be. At the time there was a commercial about just phone home and that would well me up in an emotional kind of moment. And everybody who was in the clinic at the time had exactly the same thing. And it was really a post traumatic stress phenomena⁷ that we didn't recognize at the time," he said.
He and his colleagues began to gather and talk about their patients - and not just in a clinical way.
"You don't get attached to every patient in the same way. But every once in a while you have a patient that for whatever reason you relate to on multiple levels and you grieve their loss. And acknowledging that we could do that and talk to each other about it, knowing all of us were in front of the same dilemma⁸, made a huge difference for us," he said.
Goosby says when he had his first son the realization⁹ of what was happening became most acute. Every one of his patients was somebody's son and they all had parents who loved them as much as he loved his.
Africa
In the following years, Goosby played a major role in developing U.S. domestic HIV/AIDS policy. And then, in the early 90s, he visited Zambia, South Africa and Kenya.
"When I came to these countries, there were three, four people in the bed. There were people under the bed. People in the hallways. You stepped over people to get to patients on the ward¹⁰. That was the norm in every hospital I visited and had mostly opportunistic infections that were TB related or cryptococcal meningitis toxoplasmosis," said Goosby.
That's a brain infection caused by a fungus¹¹. All the patients were in the late stages of HIV/AIDS. None had received antiretrovirals.
A lot has changed since then, not only due to scientific research and greater awareness¹², but also because of outspoken¹³ activism around the continent, including lawsuits¹⁴ demanding access to new AIDS drugs.
The PEPFAR program, which began under President Bush and continues under President Obama, is credited with helping¹⁵ to put millions of people on antiretrovirals. By the time the drugs reached Africa, it was known that a combination of drugs worked much better than using a single antiretroviral. That meant a lower chance of developing resistance.
"Africa has benefitted from starting from day one with three drugs. You will not develop resistance if you are not replicating¹⁶ with your virus. So, a person who's been on antiretrovirals, they don't develop resistant¹⁷ organism because the organism isn't dividing," said Ambassador Goosby.
The challenge now is to put more infected people on antiretrovirals during tough economic times. Goosby says hundreds of millions of dollars have been saved by switching to generic¹⁸ forms of the drugs and using trucks and trains to transport them, rather than planes. PEPFAR will also work with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria¹⁹ to combine their purchasing power to drive down the cost of the drugs even more.
Goosby says they have to be smarter and more effective. He adds the American people should be proud of the many lives the United States has saved. These days, he sees a lot more people living with AIDS than dying from it.

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 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。

3 toll   

n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟)

参考例句：

• The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
• The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。

4 coordinator   

n.协调人

参考例句：

• The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, headed by the Emergency Relief Coordinator, coordinates all UN emergency relief. 联合国人道主义事务协调厅在紧急救济协调员领导下，负责协调联合国的所有紧急救济工作。
• How am I supposed to find the client-relations coordinator? 我怎么才能找到客户关系协调员的办公室？

5 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。

6 antibiotic   

adj.抗菌的；n.抗生素

参考例句：

• The doctor said that I should take some antibiotic.医生说我应该服些用抗生素。
• Antibiotic can be used against infection.抗菌素可以用来防止感染。

7 phenomena   

n.现象

参考例句：

• Ade couldn't relate the phenomena with any theory he knew.艾德无法用他所知道的任何理论来解释这种现象。
• The object of these experiments was to find the connection,if any,between the two phenomena.这些实验的目的就是探索这两种现象之间的联系，如果存在着任何联系的话。

8 dilemma   

n.困境，进退两难的局面

参考例句：

• I am on the horns of a dilemma about the matter.这件事使我进退两难。
• He was thrown into a dilemma.他陷入困境。

9 realization   

n.实现；认识到，深刻了解

参考例句：

• We shall gladly lend every effort in our power toward its realization.我们将乐意为它的实现而竭尽全力。
• He came to the realization that he would never make a good teacher.他逐渐认识到自己永远不会成为好老师。

10 ward   

n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开

参考例句：

• The hospital has a medical ward and a surgical ward.这家医院有内科病房和外科病房。
• During the evening picnic,I'll carry a torch to ward off the bugs.傍晚野餐时，我要点根火把，抵挡蚊虫。

11 fungus   

n.真菌，真菌类植物

参考例句：

• Mushrooms are a type of fungus.蘑菇是一种真菌。
• This fungus can just be detected by the unaided eye.这种真菌只用肉眼就能检查出。

12 awareness   

n.意识，觉悟，懂事，明智

参考例句：

• There is a general awareness that smoking is harmful.人们普遍认识到吸烟有害健康。
• Environmental awareness has increased over the years.这些年来人们的环境意识增强了。

13 outspoken   

adj.直言无讳的，坦率的，坦白无隐的

参考例句：

• He was outspoken in his criticism.他在批评中直言不讳。
• She is an outspoken critic of the school system in this city.她是这座城市里学校制度的坦率的批评者。

14 lawsuits   

n.诉讼( lawsuit的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Lawsuits involving property rights and farming and grazing rights increased markedly. 涉及财产权，耕作与放牧权的诉讼案件显著地增加。 来自辞典例句
• I've lost and won more lawsuits than any man in England. 全英国的人算我官司打得最多，赢的也多，输的也多。 来自辞典例句

15 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。

16 replicating   

复制( replicate的现在分词 )； 重复； 再造； 再生

参考例句：

• Applications create these partitions for storing and replicating data. 应用程序创建这些分区用来储存和复制数据。
• The closest real things to these creatures were bits of self-replicating RNA. 最贴近这些造物的实物是能做一点微不足道的自复制的核糖核酸。

17 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。

18 generic   

adj.一般的，普通的，共有的

参考例句：

• I usually buy generic clothes instead of name brands.我通常买普通的衣服，不买名牌。
• The generic woman appears to have an extraordinary faculty for swallowing the individual.一般妇女在婚后似乎有特别突出的抑制个性的能力。

19 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。