VOA常速英语2019--或有新疫苗对抗埃博拉

In Congo, Ebola claims the lives of 60 percent of those who get the virus. The disease is so devastating¹, even those who survive it are shunned². Really makes it frightening is the high mortality rate, the very severe symptoms that people experience. And you know the fact that it comes up when not expected. The death rate is high even after a vaccine³ was used in West Africa during an Ebola outbreak that claimed 11,000 lives.

在刚果，埃博拉感染者中，有60%的人失去了生命。埃博拉这种疾病十分可怕，即便幸存下来的人也避之唯恐不及。埃博拉真正让人感到可怕的地方在于其所导致的死亡率过高，而且症状也十分严重，经历过的人都知道。而且，大家都知道一个事实，那就是埃博拉来得总是毫无征兆。死亡率居高不下，即便西非地区用了疫苗后依然如此。这次用疫苗是在一次埃博拉爆发之后，这次爆发导致1.1万人丧命。

Dr. Paul Spearman is leading a US team of investigators⁴ to develop better and longer-lasting vaccines⁵. Researchers are conducting a clinical trial that’s testing two experimental Ebola vaccines. We’re giving one vaccine and followed one week later by another vaccine, and that could give you very rapid protection. If the vaccine combination proves effective, it could be used in African countries where Ebola breaks out regularly. These epidemics⁶ that occur in several parts of Africa can arise without warning. The vaccines don’t contain the Ebola virus, but they produce a major Ebola virus protein. That’s designed to get the immune system to react. Study participants are well aware of the health and humanitarian⁷ crisis Ebola causes. Anything that we can do with research through research to stop it or prevent it, or make it so that it’s not something that grows rapidly or spreads rapidly, and I think being a part of something like that. To see if these vaccines work, researchers test the volunteers blood samples which are collected before getting injected with the experimental vaccine and also afterwards. We have baseline after one week after two weeks and we can be compared the three and then see what difference vaccination⁸ makes. The researchers hope their work could provide clues for other Ebola vaccines as well as a better understanding of how to build immunity⁹ to other pathogens, which are viruses, bacteria or other bugs¹⁰ that can cause disease.

保罗博士正在带领一组美国研究人员研发品质更好、药效更持久的疫苗。研究人员正在进行临床试验，对2种埃博拉疫苗进行检测。我们接种了一种疫苗，一周后又尝试了另一种疫苗。这两种疫苗可以迅速形成保护。如果将2种疫苗结合有效的话，就可以用于埃博拉定期爆发的非洲国家中。埃博拉疫情在非洲的部分地区出现得毫无征兆。虽然疫苗中不含有埃博拉病毒，但疫苗会产生一种重要的埃博拉病毒蛋白质。疫苗设计的初衷是让免疫系统产生反应。参加研究的人深刻意识到了健康危机和人道主义危机，这都是埃博拉引起的。我们通过研究要做的是阻止或者预防埃博拉，或者让埃博拉传播得不那么快，类似这种。为了看这2种疫苗是否起作用，研究人员检测了志愿者的血液样本。这些样本在收集来之后，才跟用于实验的疫苗一起注射；反过来的流程也有做实验。我们有基线，一周后、两周后，我们会对比三者，看看疫苗产生了哪些影响。研究人员希望他们的工作可以提供其他埃博拉疫苗的线索，也能更好地了解如何免疫其他病原体，即病毒、细菌或者其他引发埃博拉的虫类。

1 devastating   

adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的

参考例句：

• It is the most devastating storm in 20 years.这是20年来破坏性最大的风暴。
• Affairs do have a devastating effect on marriages.婚外情确实会对婚姻造成毁灭性的影响。

2 shunned   

v.避开，回避，避免( shun的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She was shunned by her family when she remarried. 她再婚后家里人都躲着她。
• He was a shy man who shunned all publicity. 他是个怕羞的人，总是避开一切引人注目的活动。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 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。

4 investigators   

n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
• The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 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。

6 epidemics   

n．流行病

参考例句：

• Reliance upon natural epidemics may be both time-consuming and misleading. 依靠天然的流行既浪费时间，又会引入歧途。
• The antibiotic epidemics usually start stop when the summer rainy season begins. 传染病通常会在夏天的雨季停止传播。

7 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

8 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。

9 immunity   

n.优惠；免除；豁免，豁免权

参考例句：

• The law gives public schools immunity from taxation.法律免除公立学校的纳税义务。
• He claims diplomatic immunity to avoid being arrested.他要求外交豁免以便避免被捕。

10 bugs   

adj.疯狂的，发疯的n.窃听器( bug的名词复数 )；病菌；虫子；[计算机]（制作软件程序所产生的意料不到的）错误

参考例句：

• All programs have bugs and need endless refinement. 所有的程序都有漏洞，都需要不断改进。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The sacks of rice were swarming with bugs. 一袋袋的米里长满了虫子。 来自《简明英汉词典》