VOA标准英语2014--新生儿面临严重的传染病感染危险

 

Newborns Face Severe Infections 新生儿面临严重的传染病感染危险

A new study estimates that nearly 7-million newborns a year suffer life-threatening infections. Most go untreated. The infections include sepsis, meningitis and pneumonia¹.

The study, which appears in The Lancet, said most of the newborn infections – about three-and-a-half-million – occur in South Asia. Sub-Saharan Africa follows with more than two-and-a-half-million and then Latin America with 800,000.

Professor Joy Lawn, who oversaw² the research, said, “These estimates aren’t just numbers. They’re guiding us to how many babies have these life threatening infections. And where are they and what should we be doing about it?”

Lawn is with the London School of Hygiene³ and Tropical Medicine and Save the Children.

She said, “We know that almost three-million newborns die every year – so babies in the first month of life. And in trying to address those we need top focus on the biggest causes. And neonatal infection – or sepsis – is one of those main causes.”

Prior to the study, she said, little data were available on neo-natal infections around the world. As a result, 65 leading researchers from 46 different institutions were recruited to do the research.

Some infections are caused by viruses. But not as much information is available on those compared to bacterial⁴ infections. The infections caused by bacteria usually are treatable with antibiotics⁵. Nevertheless, many go untreated because of a lack of awareness⁶ as to how serious they are.

“Around the world we still have around 40-million babies that are born at home. So these women maybe haven’t had care when they were pregnant. Maybe delivering at home in a situation that isn’t clean. And in some cultures women are even taken into the cow shed. You know, the dirtiest place because birth is considered a dirty event, so it should be done somewhere dirty. So, the babies may be exposed to infections straight away,” said Lawn.

And symptoms are not always obvious.

“An infection in a small baby – maybe they have a low temperature instead of a high temperature. Maybe they just go quiet instead of shouting at you like an older child would. So these infections can be missed by parents or even by health workers. So one of the things is just the critical need that health workers are able to asses⁷ and identify these complications -- that parents know about what to do -- and that we bring care closer to home,” she said.

She said the findings of the study could help guide health program planning for clinical diagnosis⁸ and treatment.

Innovation and science could make a big difference. Professor Lawn said infected newborns must be identified, perhaps by developing new rapid diagnostic tests. And they could be treated with newer, safer and easier to use antibiotics.

On Monday, in Johannesburg, the World Health Organization, UNICEF, Graca Machel and others will unveil the Every Newborn action plan to end preventable deaths. The plan calls for 10 or fewer neonatal deaths for every 1000 live births by 2035.

1 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。

2 oversaw   

v.监督，监视( oversee的过去式 )

参考例句：

• He will go down as the president who oversaw two historic transitions. 他将作为见证了巴西两次历史性转变的总统，安然引退。 来自互联网
• Dixon oversaw the project as creative director of Design Research Studio. 狄克逊监督项目的创意总监设计研究工作室。 来自互联网

3 hygiene   

n.健康法，卫生学 （a.hygienic）

参考例句：

• Their course of study includes elementary hygiene and medical theory.他们的课程包括基础卫生学和医疗知识。
• He's going to give us a lecture on public hygiene.他要给我们作关于公共卫生方面的报告。

4 bacterial   

a.细菌的

参考例句：

• Bacterial reproduction is accelerated in weightless space. 在失重的空间，细菌繁殖加快了。
• Brain lesions can be caused by bacterial infections. 大脑损伤可能由细菌感染引起。

5 antibiotics   

n.（用作复数）抗生素；（用作单数）抗生物质的研究；抗生素，抗菌素( antibiotic的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• the discovery of antibiotics in the 20th century 20世纪抗生素的发现
• The doctor gave me a prescription for antibiotics. 医生给我开了抗生素。

6 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。

7 asses   

n. 驴，愚蠢的人，臀部 adv. (常用作后置)用于贬损或骂人

参考例句：

• Sometimes I got to kick asses to make this place run right. 有时我为了把这个地方搞得像个样子，也不得不踢踢别人的屁股。 来自教父部分
• Those were wild asses maybe, or zebras flying around in herds. 那些也许是野驴或斑马在成群地奔跑。

8 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。