VOA标准英语--Fighting Uphill Battle Against AIDS

 

Fighting Uphill Battle Against AIDS

Africa is the birthplace of HIV/AIDS. No other region of the world has more people living with the disease or has had more people die from it. Yet despite being the epicenter of the epidemic¹, it took years to raise awareness² about it, and much longer to receive life-saving drugs at an affordable³ price.

In the early days of AIDS in Africa, there was no official name for the disease. In many places it was called slim disease because people wasted away before they died. HIV wasn’t killing⁴ the young or old in large numbers, but it was decimating breadwinners, teachers, farmers, mothers and fathers - people in the prime of their lives. Grandparents in their 80s suddenly found themselves raising their children’s children.

Stigma⁵, discrimination and superstition⁶ took hold. Ignorance about HIV was helping⁷ to kill – ignorance even at high levels of government. Tens of millions died from AIDS in Africa.

While the search for treatment and a vaccine⁸ eventually began in the U.S. and elsewhere, sub-Saharan Africans were often left on their own to help keep friends and family alive. However, without medicine, patients could only be treated with love and dedication⁹. But that only went so far.

“At the peak of the AIDS epidemic in Africa, HIV accounted for two-thirds of all adult deaths. Can you imagine what that would be like in our own village, our own community? There were communities in which the only business that was increasing was the funeral business,” said Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the CDC, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Average citizens suddenly found themselves on the frontlines of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, becoming leaders and activists¹⁰.

“If it weren’t for the advocacy in HIV we would not be where we are today. Not just in HIV, but in many other diseases. The HIV advocacy community I think showed the way for people suffering from a wide variety of health conditions to demand better treatment – to demand faster results – to demand access to the latest information,” he said.

One of those activists is Noerine Kaleeba, one of Uganda’s --and perhaps one of Africa’s -- best known champions for advocacy. She began seeing evidence of the disease while working as a hospital therapist in 1983.

“It was about that time that I think Uganda began to really realize that we were really sitting on a catastrophe,” she said.

All she knew at the time, she said, was that a viral disease was spreading, and in particular among, sexworkers. Kaleeba saw a young man in the hospital who had been ravaged¹¹ by the disease. She reacted the way many people did back then.

“I felt very afraid for myself. I did not touch him. A year later my own husband was diagnosed with AIDS,” she said.

That was 1986 and suddenly Kaleeba and her family were thrust into the middle of the epidemic. Her husband Christopher was diagnosed with late stages of the disease while he was a student in Britain. Kaleeba learned about it by a telegram from the British government.

“My initial reaction,” she said, “was denial because all I knew about AIDS at the time was that it was a disease that affected¹² bad people – people who were promiscuous¹³. And I knew for a fact that neither I nor my husband had been promiscuous.”

She had heard that AIDS was also associated with gay men in San Francisco, but Christopher had never been there. But Kaleeba said that how he became infected was less important than caring for her husband. Kaleeba says she didn’t look for blame, she looked for solutions.

That led to the founding of TASO, Uganda’s premier¹⁴ AIDS- related NGO. It started as a support group for her family and others affected by AIDS.

“You know, pray together, cry together, learn from each other how we can live, especially live with a stigma.”

She said those who were infected were being neglected by their families and the healthcare system. An HIV diagnosis¹⁵ was a death sentence.

Kaleeba was tested for HIV. The initial test showed no infection, but doctors told her she probably would test positive in several months. She would not take another test until many years later.

In the early days of TASO, no antiretroviral drugs were available. So, HIV positive people were given counseling and much needed emotional support. Many whose immune systems had collapsed¹⁶ were succumbing¹⁷ to opportunistic infections. TASO members paid out of their own pockets for medicines to treat them. That nearly broke the organization.

Fourteen people joined Kaleeba and her husband in founding TASO. Twelve of them, including Christopher, died within a few years. Kaleeba said it seemed like she was attending a funeral every week. But TASO focused on the living.

“If you are not dead, you are living. And that’s where the slogan of “living positively” came from. We wanted to emphasize to people that if you are still living until you’re dead,” she said.

And when people did die, they were able to die with dignity.

TASO eventually grew into a major force in the battle against HIV/AIDS. Kaleeba said antiretrovirals changed the face of the epidemic. The drugs save lives. But she said thousands more in Uganda, who need the drugs, still don’t have access to them.

Kaleeba eventually did learn her HIV status in 2006. She tested negative.

She’s retired¹⁸ now, but her career included 10 years with UNAIDS. Uganda and Senegal are considered the first African countries to take the disease very seriously.

In 2000, South Africa became the first developing country to host the International AIDS Conference. Professor Gerry Coovadia was the co-chair of the Durban meeting. He reflected on the conference in 2010 on its 10th anniversary.

“Without exaggerating its impact, it certainly is considered one of the landmark¹⁹ AIDS conferences in the world, and that includes those which have been held recently. And I think the reason it is considered a landmark conference is that quite a number of issues came to the fore,” he said.

Perhaps the biggest controversy²⁰ was then-president Thabo Mbeki’s refusal to accept that a virus was the sole cause of AIDS. Many scientists had signed the Durban Declaration urging him to accept the evidence.

“It seemed to me that we could not blame everything on a single virus. It seemed to me also that every living African, whether in good or ill health, is prey²¹ to many enemies of health that would interact one upon the other in many ways within one human body,” said Mbeki.

Many activists and scientists said Mr. Mbeki’s position delayed vital services and treatment – a delay that cost many lives.

Former South African president Nelson Mandela attempted to end the debate over the cause of AIDS when he addressed the closing of AIDS 2000.

“In the face of the great threat posed by HIV/AIDS we have to rise above our differences and combine our efforts to save our people,” he said.

The Durban conference also addressed the issue of AIDS orphans²². It was predicted the epidemic would create millions of them. Several spoke²³ at the conference, including this 12 year old girl.

“I didn’t know that my mother was HIV. I was, you know, living with her not knowing all those things. And then she died. You know, it was so much hard for me growing up without a mother and – my father died a long time ago. And now it’s my brother. He’s dying, too, and I don’t know what to do,” she said.

Many organizations formed to help orphans, including the Nyumbani in Kenya and the FXB Foundation.

Access to affordable antiretroviral drugs is growing in Africa due in large part to PEPFAR – The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS Tuberculosis²⁴ and Malaria²⁵, and the Clinton Foundation. But it was a long and hard-fought legal battle in South Africa that opened the door.

In 2001, in a landmark case, nearly 40 pharmaceutical²⁶ companies ended their challenge to a law that allowed cheaper versions of AIDS drugs to be sold. The case led to a national treatment plan in the country with the highest HIV rates of any nation. However, that took another legal battle this time against the government. Zachie Achmet and his Treatment Action Campaign led that fight.

Mark Heywood worked closely with him and spoke to VOA in 2009.

“It confirms that the issue around access to essential medicines is considered a premier human rights question at this point in the world’s history. And that’s an important message to send to every government of the world,” he said.

The International AIDS Conference, the world’s largest AIDS-related gathering²⁷, is being held in Washington, D.C. from July 22nd to the 27th.

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 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。

3 affordable   

adj.支付得起的，不太昂贵的

参考例句：

• The rent for the four-roomed house is affordable.四居室房屋的房租付得起。
• There are few affordable apartments in big cities.在大城市中没有几所公寓是便宜的。

4 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

5 stigma   

n.耻辱，污名；(花的)柱头

参考例句：

• Being an unmarried mother used to carry a social stigma.做未婚母亲在社会上曾是不光彩的事。
• The stigma of losing weighed heavily on the team.失败的耻辱让整个队伍压力沉重。

6 superstition   

n.迷信，迷信行为

参考例句：

• It's a common superstition that black cats are unlucky.认为黑猫不吉祥是一种很普遍的迷信。
• Superstition results from ignorance.迷信产生于无知。

7 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。

8 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。

9 dedication   

n.奉献，献身，致力，题献，献辞

参考例句：

• We admire her courage,compassion and dedication.我们钦佩她的勇气、爱心和奉献精神。
• Her dedication to her work was admirable.她对工作的奉献精神可钦可佩。

10 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 ravaged   

毁坏( ravage的过去式和过去分词 )； 蹂躏； 劫掠； 抢劫

参考例句：

• a country ravaged by civil war 遭受内战重创的国家
• The whole area was ravaged by forest fires. 森林火灾使整个地区荒废了。

12 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

13 promiscuous   

adj.杂乱的，随便的

参考例句：

• They were taking a promiscuous stroll when it began to rain.他们正在那漫无目的地散步，突然下起雨来。
• Alec know that she was promiscuous and superficial.亚历克知道她是乱七八糟和浅薄的。

14 premier   

adj.首要的；n.总理，首相

参考例句：

• The Irish Premier is paying an official visit to Britain.爱尔兰总理正在对英国进行正式访问。
• He requested that the premier grant him an internview.他要求那位总理接见他一次。

15 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。

16 collapsed   

adj.倒塌的

参考例句：

• Jack collapsed in agony on the floor. 杰克十分痛苦地瘫倒在地板上。
• The roof collapsed under the weight of snow. 房顶在雪的重压下突然坍塌下来。

17 succumbing   

不再抵抗（诱惑、疾病、攻击等）( succumb的现在分词 )； 屈从； 被压垮； 死

参考例句：

• Mrs. Smith washed and ironed clothes for him, succumbing to him. 史密斯太太被他迷住了，愿意为他洗衣烫衣。
• They would not in the end abandon their vital interests by succumbing to Soviet blandishment. 他们最终决不会受苏联人的甜言蜜语的诱惑，从而抛弃自己的切身利益。

18 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

19 landmark   

n.陆标，划时代的事，地界标

参考例句：

• The Russian Revolution represents a landmark in world history.俄国革命是世界历史上的一个里程碑。
• The tower was once a landmark for ships.这座塔曾是船只的陆标。

20 controversy   

n.争论，辩论，争吵

参考例句：

• That is a fact beyond controversy.那是一个无可争论的事实。
• We ran the risk of becoming the butt of every controversy.我们要冒使自己在所有的纷争中都成为众矢之的的风险。

21 prey   

n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨

参考例句：

• Stronger animals prey on weaker ones.弱肉强食。
• The lion was hunting for its prey.狮子在寻找猎物。

22 orphans   

孤儿( orphan的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The poor orphans were kept on short commons. 贫苦的孤儿们吃不饱饭。
• Their uncle was declared guardian to the orphans. 这些孤儿的叔父成为他们的监护人。

23 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

24 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。

25 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。

26 pharmaceutical   

adj.药学的，药物的；药用的，药剂师的

参考例句：

• She has donated money to establish a pharmaceutical laboratory.她捐款成立了一个药剂实验室。
• We are engaged in a legal tussle with a large pharmaceutical company.我们正同一家大制药公司闹法律纠纷。

27 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。