VOA标准英语2012--Pinpointing TB Treatment in Cities

 

Pinpointing¹ TB Treatment in Cities

A new study says targeting treatment programs at specific neighborhoods may be a better way of controlling tuberculosis² in some cities. The study looks at so-called TB hotspots.

Lead author Dr. David Dowdy³ said a hotspot is a “geographically⁵ defined area” where TB cases are most prevalent. Dowdy is an assistant professor of epidemiology at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.

Rio hot spots

“We looked at the city of Rio de Janeiro that has a population of about 6 million individuals and identified three geographic⁴ areas that have populations between about 50,000 and 250,000 where TB incidence was higher. So a hotspot is a geographically defined, smaller area of a larger city, in this case, where TB seems to be transmitted at a much higher rate,” he said.

But if most of the people in Rio de Janeiro live outside of these hotspots why should they worry about TB infections?

Dowdy said, “Tuberculosis is a disease that’s transmitted in airborne fashion. So any individual is susceptible⁶ to TB and can pick it up from anyone else. This can be on the bus. This can be in a shopping center. This can be out on the street. And what we found was that much of the TB transmission to people outside of these hotspots actually originated from these hotspots, such that if tuberculosis were better controlled within the hotspots TB rates in the entire city would go down.”

It’s long been known that these TB hotspots exist.

“TB has since the 1800s been a disease of poverty, such that individuals with fewer resources, poor, more crowded conditions, etcetera, have always suffered the brunt of the burden of tuberculosis,” he said.

It’s already being done for other diseases, but the concept was never widely accepted for tuberculosis.

“Sexually transmitted diseases, malaria⁷, other parasitic⁸ diseases. This has been widely known for a long time that targeting the areas of highest transmission can have dramatic impact on community-wide rates of disease,” he said.

The study applied⁹ that concept to Rio’s TB hotspots.

He said, “We found that if you were able to take these hotspots and bring them not to zero but to the same TB rates as the average of the rest of the city that you could have a reduction in TB across the city that would be similar to reducing TB rates in the rest of the city by 50 percent.”

Dowdy added that Brazil is taking the idea a bit further as it gets ready to host some major international events.

“I think also something that Brazil is doing actively¹⁰ right now in preparation for the World Cup and the Olympics is simply trying to improve the economic conditions as a whole in these areas. If people aren’t as crowded, if they have more access to healthcare, if they have better living conditions – all of those things are known to improve TB rates as well,” he said.

Another factor taken into account is the HIV/AIDS rates. TB and HIV are very closely linked because people with weakened immune systems are more susceptible to tuberculosis.

Vaccination¹¹

The Johns Hopkins professor said targeting TB hotspots is similar to vaccinating¹² a city.

“We like to think of it that way. We think of treatment of TB as an investment in the future because if TB rates can be brought down today that means less TB transmission in the future. The difference between TB treatment and a vaccine¹³ is that treatment directly benefits the person receiving the treatment at that time. So not only do you benefit the person who has the disease, but you also make an investment for future generations as well,” he said.

Dowdy said, however, the Rio model may not apply to African cities. He said while the TB hotspots are well integrated within the Brazilian city, in Africa, many of the areas of high TB transmission are on the outskirts¹⁴ of cities. He says new models could be developed to determine whether targeting the outlying hotspots would have a major effect on overall TB rates.

1 pinpointing   

准确地找出或描述( pinpoint的现在分词 )； 为…准确定位

参考例句：

• The difficulty of pinpointing primitive and derived characters remains. 要正确地指出原始性状和次生性状仍然感到困难。
• Pinpointing the true source of power in Japan is a notoriously slippery task. 要准确指出日本真正的权力来源，是一项非常困难的任务。

2 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。

3 dowdy   

adj.不整洁的；过旧的

参考例句：

• She was in a dowdy blue frock.她穿了件不大洁净的蓝上衣。
• She looked very plain and dowdy.她长得非常普通，衣也过时。

4 geographic   

adj.地理学的，地理的

参考例句：

• The city's success owes much to its geographic position. 这座城市的成功很大程度上归功于它的地理位置。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Environmental problems pay no heed to these geographic lines. 环境问题并不理会这些地理界限。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

5 geographically   

adv.地理学上，在地理上，地理方面

参考例句：

• Geographically, the UK is on the periphery of Europe. 从地理位置上讲，英国处于欧洲边缘。 来自辞典例句
• All these events, however geographically remote, urgently affected Western financial centers. 所有这些事件，无论发生在地理上如何遥远的地方，都对西方金融中心产生紧迫的影响。 来自名作英译部分

6 susceptible   

adj.过敏的，敏感的；易动感情的，易受感动的

参考例句：

• Children are more susceptible than adults.孩子比成人易受感动。
• We are all susceptible to advertising.我们都易受广告的影响。

7 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。

8 parasitic   

adj.寄生的

参考例句：

• Will global warming mean the spread of tropical parasitic diseases?全球变暖是否意味着热带寄生虫病会蔓延呢？
• By definition,this way of life is parasitic.从其含义来说，这是种寄生虫的生活方式。

9 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

10 actively   

adv.积极地，勤奋地

参考例句：

• During this period all the students were actively participating.在这节课中所有的学生都积极参加。
• We are actively intervening to settle a quarrel.我们正在积极调解争执。

11 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。

12 vaccinating   

给…接种疫苗( vaccinate的现在分词 )； 注射疫苗，接种疫苗

参考例句：

• At first blush, vaccinating the wolves against rabies seems a simple solution. 乍一看来，为狼群注射防狂犬病疫苗是一种简单的办法。
• Also vaccinating children against misers (measles) has saved many lives. 还有，给儿童进行疫苗接种防止麻疹也挽救了许多生命。

13 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。

14 outskirts   

n.郊外，郊区

参考例句：

• Our car broke down on the outskirts of the city.我们的汽车在市郊出了故障。
• They mostly live on the outskirts of a town.他们大多住在近郊。