VOA常速英语2020--击败镰状细胞病指日可待

Next, an editorial reflecting the views of the United States government.

以下是一篇反映美国政府政策立场的社论。

Sickle¹ Cell Disease is an inherited condition that, if left untreated, kills 80 percent of children born with it before they reach their fifth birthday. In sub-Saharan Africa, where 75 percent of cases occur, every year about 300,000 infants are born with the disease. Taking advantage of decades of experience that comes from battling Sickle Cell Disease among its own population of African Americans, the United States is partnering with countries in sub-Saharan Africa that have the largest number of people suffering from the disease. “There are a couple of approaches we can use,” said Brett Giroir, a pediatric doctor and Admiral in the United States Public Health Service who currently serves as the assistant secretary for health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. “We could mitigate² the effects of the disease. We could treat people like we treat all other conditions. And we could do that very simply if we give penicillin³ and vaccines⁴. We know we can get children who die before age five up into their 20s with nothing else and probably into their 30s or 40s. If we treat with hydroxyurea…there's no reason that people can't live to their 40s and 50s.”

镰状细胞病是一种遗传性疾病，如果不加以治疗，80%的先天性镰状细胞病患病儿童会在5岁之前死亡。有75%的镰状细胞病病例出现在撒哈拉以南的非洲地区，那里每年大约有30万婴儿生来就患有这种疾病。美国正在利用非裔美国人抗击镰状细胞病的数十年经验，与此类病患最多的撒哈拉以南的非洲国家结成伙伴关系。“我们能够采用多种办法。”目前担任美国卫生及公共服务部助理部长兼美国公共卫生服务军官团上将的儿科医师布雷特·吉罗伊尔表示。“我们可以减缓镰状细胞病的影响。我们可以像治疗其他疾病一样去治疗患者。如果我们使用青霉素和疫苗治疗，就能很简单地做到这一点。我们知道我们能够让那些活不到五岁的儿童们活到20多岁，甚至可能活到30多岁或40多岁。如果我们用羟基脲治疗，那些患者们就没有理由活不到40多岁和50多岁。”

Now we can also take advantage of treatments that deal with a genetic⁶ defect in the blood. That’s important, because a human being replaces his or her red blood cells every 90 days. “You could correct the gene⁵ defect in the bone marrow⁷ and all of a sudden people with sickle cell will start pumping out normal cells. That is not science fiction; that's being done in clinical trials right here in the United States. It has a potential for being scalable to hundreds of thousands or millions of people.” Admiral Giroir believes that within ten years, we could see relatively⁸ inexpensive, accessible treatment that would enable people with Sickle Cell Disease everywhere to lead normal lives. “There has never been a time in history that there's been so much activity and excitement about helping⁹ people with sickle cell disease,” he said. “There's never been this opportunity and we want to seize it. And the time is really right. Just think about that. Nine million children by 2050 that we can save have them have happy, safe, productive lives for their countries, for them to raise families on their own.”

现在我们也可以利用治疗血液中的基因缺陷的方法。这很重要，因为人类的红血球每90天就更换一次。“你可以更正骨髓中的基因缺陷，镰状细胞病的患者会突然开始生出正常细胞。这不是科幻小说；这是美国当前正在进行的临床试验。它有可能把规模扩大到数十万人或数百万人。”吉罗伊尔上将相信，十年之内，我们就能看到相对便宜和容易获取的治疗方法出现，世界各地的镰状细胞病患者都能由此过上正常的生活。他说：“在帮助镰状细胞病患者方面，历史上从未有过如此多的活动和激情。”“过去从未出现过这样的机会，我们想要抓住它。而且恰逢其时。想想看。到2050年，我们能够拯救900万儿童，让他们在自己的国家过上幸福、安全和富有成效的生活，他们能够自食其力、养家糊口。”

That was an editorial reflecting the views of the United States government.

这是一篇反映美国政府政策立场的社论。

1 sickle   

n.镰刀

参考例句：

• The gardener was swishing off the tops of weeds with a sickle.园丁正在用镰刀嗖嗖地割掉杂草的顶端。
• There is a picture of the sickle on the flag. 旗帜上有镰刀的图案。

2 mitigate   

vt.（使）减轻，（使）缓和

参考例句：

• The government is trying to mitigate the effects of inflation.政府正试图缓和通货膨胀的影响。
• Governments should endeavour to mitigate distress.政府应努力缓解贫困问题。

3 penicillin   

n.青霉素，盘尼西林

参考例句：

• I should have asked him for a shot of penicillin.我应当让他给我打一针青霉素的。
• Penicillin was an extremely significant medical discovery.青霉素是极其重要的医学发现。

4 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。

5 gene   

n.遗传因子，基因

参考例句：

• A single gene may have many effects.单一基因可能具有很多种效应。
• The targeting of gene therapy has been paid close attention.其中基因治疗的靶向性是值得密切关注的问题之一。

6 genetic   

adj.遗传的，遗传学的

参考例句：

• It's very difficult to treat genetic diseases.遗传性疾病治疗起来很困难。
• Each daughter cell can receive a full complement of the genetic information.每个子细胞可以收到遗传信息的一个完全补偿物。

7 marrow   

n.骨髓；精华；活力

参考例句：

• It was so cold that he felt frozen to the marrow. 天气太冷了，他感到寒冷刺骨。
• He was tired to the marrow of his bones.他真是累得筋疲力尽了。

8 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。

9 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。