VOA标准英语2014--Report: US Essential for Global Health 报告称美国对全球卫生至关重要

 

Report: US Essential for Global Health 报告称美国对全球卫生至关重要

A new report says while big budget battles in Washington may be over for now, adequate funding to fight HIV, TB, malaria¹ and other diseases may still be at risk. The Global Health Technologies Coalition² has released its annual report, which focuses on U.S. leadership in research and development.

Coalition Director Kaitlin Christenson praises the improved atmosphere between Democrats³ and Republicans. She called the ceasefire in budget debates on Capitol Hill “good news.”

“We’re pleased to see that for the first time in several years Congress is able to move forward with a budget that went through the relatively⁴ normal process. And we’re pleased to see that in many areas numbers for global health specifically were held strong,” she said.

The federal budget had gone though – what’s called – sequestration.  It required mandatory⁵ across-the-board cuts for all agencies if Congress failed to make its own spending cuts. In recent years, the legislative⁶ body could not reach agreement, so all agencies took a big hit in spending.

Christenson said while the climate has improved, there are no guarantees of agreement for the next fiscal⁷ year beginning in October.

“Going into negotiations⁸ for FY-15 we do have some concerns and are hoping that Congress will – as it takes the president’s budget request – bring numbers back up for agencies like the NIH [National Institutes of Health], like global health programs at the State Department and at USAID.”

She said the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Agency for International Development play a critical role in researching and developing health-related products, simply known as R&D.

With USAID and the State Department, in particular, we saw that funding levels were for the most part decreased across all conditions and disease areas based on the levels that were approved by Congress for the FY-14 budget agreement.

It’s a similar situation for the National Institutes of Health.

Christenson said, “With the NIH, the president’s request for FY-15 was still lower than the request that came in in 2014. It’s a slight increase over what we saw passed by Congress, but the budget request coming from the administration has actually decreased. There’s critical research happening at the NIH that helps us understand how these diseases take place – and helps propel the development of new products that are desperately⁹ needed.”

Before sequestration began in March of last year, many research projects were underway. Many millions of dollars had already been spent on them. When the cuts took hold, the projects simply shut down.

“The challenge with research is that when we stop a clinical trial, we can’t just pick it back up. There’s a significant amount of investment made in staff – in building community support – and building capacity of local researchers. So, once a trial shuts down it’s very difficult and expensive to start it back up,” she said.

The Global Health Technologies Coalition report is called Innovation for a changing world: The role of U.S. leadership in global health R&D. Christenson says the coalition takes a long-term view on global health investment.

“We’ve done some analysis that shows, for example, that the investment that was made in developing a recently introduced meningitis vaccine¹⁰ in Africa will pay off over the long-term. We estimate that hundreds of millions of dollars will be saved that would have been otherwise spent in treating individuals who succumb¹¹ to meningitis,” she said.

She described such investment as critical.

“We’ve seen the tremendous impact that comes from research to create life-saving health tools. But we know that the tools we have today are not sufficient and that there is no guarantee they will meet the health needs of tomorrow.”

Last year, a bill was introduced to Congress called the 21st Century Global Health Technology Act.  Christenson said it would codify¹² support for USAID in research and development and cooperation between U.S. agencies involved in the work.

 

The coalition also called for bigger budgets for the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases.

1 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。

2 coalition   

n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合

参考例句：

• The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
• Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。

3 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

5 mandatory   

adj.命令的；强制的；义务的；n.受托者

参考例句：

• It's mandatory to pay taxes.缴税是义务性的。
• There is no mandatory paid annual leave in the U.S.美国没有强制带薪年假。

6 legislative   

n.立法机构，立法权；adj.立法的，有立法权的

参考例句：

• Congress is the legislative branch of the U.S. government.国会是美国政府的立法部门。
• Today's hearing was just the first step in the legislative process.今天的听证会只是展开立法程序的第一步。

7 fiscal   

adj.财政的，会计的，国库的，国库岁入的

参考例句：

• The increase of taxation is an important fiscal policy.增税是一项重要的财政政策。
• The government has two basic strategies of fiscal policy available.政府有两个可行的财政政策基本战略。

8 negotiations   

协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过

参考例句：

• negotiations for a durable peace 为持久和平而进行的谈判
• Negotiations have failed to establish any middle ground. 谈判未能达成任何妥协。

9 desperately   

adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地

参考例句：

• He was desperately seeking a way to see her again.他正拼命想办法再见她一面。
• He longed desperately to be back at home.他非常渴望回家。

10 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。

11 succumb   

v.屈服，屈从；死

参考例句：

• They will never succumb to the enemies.他们决不向敌人屈服。
• Will business leaders succumb to these ideas?商业领袖们会被这些观点折服吗？

12 codify   

v.将法律、法规等编成法典

参考例句：

• The noble,Dracon,was asked to codify the laws.贵族德拉古被选为立法者。
• The new government promised to codify the laws.新政府应允要编纂法典。