VOA标准英语2011--Millions More Children to Receive Vaccin

Millions More Children to Receive Vaccines²

More than one million children die each year from severe diarrhea and pneumococcal disease. Today (Tuesday), the GAVI Alliance announced an expanded campaign against the two leading killers³ of children worldwide.
The Global Alliance for Vaccine¹ Immunization (GAVI) is providing new funding for vaccines in 37 more developing countries. Most are in sub-Saharan Africa. That brings the number of countries where GAVI provides childhood vaccines to 72.
“This is an unprecedented⁴ ramp-up for us to introduce new vaccines to poor children in poor countries,” said Jeffrey Rowland, GAVI’s chief spokesman.
Leveling the playing field
“Sixteen developing countries will receive funding to introduce the rotavirus vaccine. Rotavirus is the biggest cause of severe diarrhea in children under five years of age. And then 18 more countries will receive funding to introduce the pneumococcal vaccine. Pneumococcal disease causes pneumonia⁵, meningitis and sepsis. Pneumonia and severe diarrhea are the two biggest childhood killers in the world in absolute terms,” he said.
Expanding the availability of these vaccines creates a level playing field.
“It means that children in poor countries finally have the same right as kids in richer countries, getting the same kinds of protection against vaccine preventable diseases. Kids in the United States, for example, have been receiving the vaccine against pneumonia since 2000,” said Rowland.
Paying the bill
The GAVI Alliance held its first pledging conference in June. Donors⁶ promised $3.4 billion over the next 5 years. That’s $600,000 more than GAVI had actually requested. GAVI officials say donors recognize that childhood vaccines have a very good return on investment.
The vaccine against pneumococcal disease costs about $3.50 per dose, while the rotavirus vaccine costs about $7.00 per dose. However an announcement is expected in October about a significant drop in price for the rotavirus vaccine.
While GAVI pays the bulk of the cost, countries are required to pay a share, usually about 20 cents per dose.
Sudan is among the countries now receiving the two vaccines, but South Sudan is not. Before they can be administered in South Sudan, at least 50 percent of the children there must be up to date on their vaccines for diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus. GAVI is currently working with health officials to make that happen.
In all, the alliance plans to immunize over 250 million children by 2015.

1 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。

2 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。

3 killers   

凶手( killer的名词复数 )； 消灭…者； 致命物； 极难的事

参考例句：

• He remained steadfast in his determination to bring the killers to justice. 他要将杀人凶手绳之以法的决心一直没有动摇。
• They were professional killers who did in John. 杀死约翰的这些人是职业杀手。

4 unprecedented   

adj.无前例的，新奇的

参考例句：

• The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
• A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。

5 pneumonia   

n.肺炎

参考例句：

• Cage was struck with pneumonia in her youth.凯奇年轻时得过肺炎。
• Pneumonia carried him off last week.肺炎上星期夺去了他的生命。

6 donors   

n.捐赠者( donor的名词复数 )；献血者；捐血者；器官捐献者

参考例句：

• Please email us to be removed from our active list of blood donors. 假如你想把自己的名字从献血联系人名单中删去，请给我们发电子邮件。
• About half this amount comes from individual donors and bequests. 这笔钱大约有一半来自个人捐赠及遗赠。 来自《简明英汉词典》