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VOA慢速英语2014 研究人员表示大多数新生儿的死亡是可以避免的

时间:2014-06-21 15:07:17

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Researchers Say Most Deaths of Newborns Preventable 研究人员表示大多数新生儿的死亡是可以避免的

From VOA Learning English, this is Science in the News.

This week, we report on research that shows most newborn baby deaths could be prevented. Then, we report on the first international plan of action to end newborn deaths. Later, we tell about a call for pregnant and breastfeeding mothers to make sure they are getting plenty of iodine1 in their diets. And finally, we tell about a possible link between premature2 birth and a collection of mostly harmless bacteria.

Preventing Newborn Deaths

Five-and-one-half million newborn and stillborn baby deaths are reported every year. But very little money is being spent on efforts to reduce that number. That was one of the findings of a series of papers published in the British medical journal The Lancet. The findings also show almost all those deaths could be prevented.

Top 10 countries for newborn deaths in 2013.

Joy Lawn led the research. 

"Every year there are 2.9 million babies who die in the first month of life, and most shockingly a million who die on their birth day -- the first day. And there are 2.6 million stillbirths -- most shockingly, 1.2 million who die while the woman is in labor3."

Most of the deaths take place in low- and middle-income countries. But Ms. Lawn notes that newborn and stillborn baby deaths are also an issue in rich countries. For example, the United States has about 500,000 pre-term -- or early -- births every year.

Joy Lawn is a professor at the London School of Hygiene4 and Tropical Medicine. She is also an advisor5 to the aid group Save the Children UK. She says many babies and their mothers could be saved for just a few dollars in medical care.

"Seventy-one percent of newborn deaths can be prevented with solutions that we have already. Three million women, babies -- counting newborns and stillbirths -- could be saved every year with investments at the time of birth."

That care at the time of birth includes simple things -- like keeping the baby warm and helping6 him or her learn to breastfeed. Another good idea is to make sure the baby has skin-to-skin contact with the mother.

Professor Lawn says doctors have known for years that many newborns die. But she says spending to prevent the problem remains7 low.

"Of the billions of dollars that are given for child survival, only 4% of that donor8 funding even mentions the word ‘newborn.' And yet 44% of under-five deaths are among newborns. So there's a major mismatch in what the funding is going to, compared to where the deaths are now."

Much of the money is spent on preventing deaths of mothers and children up to age five.

In recent years, it has become more common for hospitals in the United States to prepare birth records for stillborn babies. Professor Lawn says it is important for parents to know that their child has been recognized. However, she says researchers found that, in many developing countries, no such record is kept.

More than 50 experts from 28 organizations in 17 countries took part in the research. Their findings were published in the British medical journal The Lancet.

WHO's Plan to Save Millions of Newborn Lives

Melinda Gates, the wife of American businessman Bill Gates, recently made an appeal for the first international action plan to end newborn deaths. She urged delegates to the World Health Assembly in Switzerland to support the Newborn Action Plan.

Every Newborn Action Plan, an international initiative, is set to be launched in June 2014. It's estimated there are 5.5-million newborn and still birth deaths each year. Credit: PMNCH

Health officials agree that many -- perhaps even most -- newborn deaths are preventable. Yet nearly three million babies die each year within their first 28 days of life.

Melinda Gates told the meeting that, by approving the action plan, health ministers can immediately begin saving young lives. The delegates voted to approve the measure.

Ms. Gates told reporters that five low-cost interventions9 are very effective in saving newborns. They include breastfeeding, stopping and treating infections, and skin-to-skin contact with the mother.

Ms. Gates said three countries -- Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Nepal -- are already putting these steps in place, and reporting some success.

"And simply by using the health care extension worker -- a health community worker platform that they've got -- and focusing on those newborn deaths, they've been able to bring down not just under-five mortality, but newborn death-rates as well. So, we have those as models and the other African nations and other countries around the world are looking at those three countries to learn what is actually possible by focusing on this."

Ms. Gates says the newborn death-rate in Ethiopia has gone down by 28 percent since the country began working on the issue six years ago.

One of the United Nations' Millennium10 Development Goals is to reduce the number of deaths among new mothers and children under five. Great progress has been made in reaching this goal. But the World Health Organization says South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa still have high numbers of newborn deaths every year. It says India, Nigeria and Pakistan have the highest numbers.

Melinda Gates says many countries neglect the issue of newborn deaths because they are working to reduce the number of women who die during childbirth. Ms. Gates said that if there are problems giving birth, health workers first try to save the mother. She says it is important to make health workers understand that they should work on both the mother and child at the same time.

The Lancet recently published research that shows in most places, more than half of all child deaths are among newborns.

Many Pregnant, Breastfeeding Women Need More Iodine

The American Academy of Pediatrics says pregnant and breastfeeding women should make sure they are getting enough iodine in their diet.

Growing babies -- both before and after birth -- need iodine for brain development. But a new study says about a third of pregnant women in the U.S. are not getting enough iodine, and only 15 percent take pills that give them the important mineral.

The National Academy of Sciences and the American Thyroid Association say pregnant and breastfeeding women should take vitamins that have at least 150 micrograms of iodide. Iodide is a kind of iodine that can easily be taken in by the body. The U.S. Institute of Medicine says a good diet, in addition to vitamin supplements, should give pregnant women 220 micrograms of iodine every day. It says breastfeeding women should take in 290 micrograms.

Iodine is commonly found in fortified11 salt. But researchers say many women get their salt from processed, or prepared, food. They say this kind of salt does not contain iodine. They urge pregnant and breastfeeding women to get tested and take extra vitamins to make sure they are getting enough of the element.

Women who are thinking about having a child should make sure they have enough iodine because many women do not know they are pregnant early in the pregnancy12.

Bad Health, Bacteria in Placenta Could Cause Premature Births

The placenta -- which supports the growing fetus13 -- may not be as clean as many medical experts once believed. New research suggests the placenta may contain a collection of bacteria that may affect the pregnancy, and even premature births.

Doctors work hard to prevent such births, because the babies often do not weigh very much. If they survive, low-birth-weight infants are at increased risk for health and developmental issues. They may develop cerebral14 palsy, lung and gastrointestinal problems, and eyesight and hearing loss.

Researchers at the Baylor College of Medicine in Texas studied the placental tissue of 320 women. Most of these women gave birth the traditional way -- without doctors performing an operation. The researchers say they found about 300 different kinds of bacteria in the placenta. Most of them are harmless, and help the baby's health. Until this discovery, experts believed that those harmless, and helpful, bacteria, lived in the mother's vaginal canal and were passed to the baby during birth.

The researchers made another surprising finding. They found that the mix of bacteria in a newborn is not like the bacteria found in the mother's vagina. They were able to link the bacteria in the placentas of women who recently gave birth to microbes in the mothers' mouths.

Kjersti Aagaard led the research team. She says that may explain why women with gum disease often give birth to babies at less than 37 weeks into the pregnancy. The normal pregnancy lasts about 40 weeks.

Ms. Aagaard reported on the study in the journal Science Translational Medicine. She said researchers believe the bacteria from the mouth travelled to the placenta through the mother's blood.

The placenta is connected to the wall of the woman's uterus by the umbilical cord. It is the only organ that forms in adult life and then not used after birth. It feeds the fetus as it develops and provides oxygen. It also removes waste and produces hormones15 that support the pregnancy.

Kjersti Aagaard says things like smoking and diet have been linked to premature births. Those factors can be controlled by the mother. But other factors -- like what is in the placenta -- cannot be controlled. So women should not blame themselves for giving birth to premature babies.

"In this situation, we really want women to step away from that, ‘I accept the blame for what happened in this pregnancy,' and much more one towards, ‘Well, if there are things that put me at risk for pre-term birth that I can change, then I'm going to do everything in my power to change those.'"

By learning more about the placenta before the child is born, researchers hope to identify women who may be at high risk for pre-term deliveries.

This Science in the News was written by Christopher Cruise, who also produced our report. It was reported by Joe DeCapua and Jessica Berman in Washington and Lisa Schlein in Geneva.


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点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 iodine Da6zr     
n.碘,碘酒
参考例句:
  • The doctor painted iodine on the cut.医生在伤口上涂点碘酒。
  • Iodine tends to localize in the thyroid.碘容易集于甲状腺。
2 premature FPfxV     
adj.比预期时间早的;不成熟的,仓促的
参考例句:
  • It is yet premature to predict the possible outcome of the dialogue.预言这次对话可能有什么结果为时尚早。
  • The premature baby is doing well.那个早产的婴儿很健康。
3 labor P9Tzs     
n.劳动,努力,工作,劳工;分娩;vi.劳动,努力,苦干;vt.详细分析;麻烦
参考例句:
  • We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
  • He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后,他已经疲惫不堪了。
4 hygiene Kchzr     
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。
5 advisor JKByk     
n.顾问,指导老师,劝告者
参考例句:
  • They employed me as an advisor.他们聘请我当顾问。
  • The professor is engaged as a technical advisor.这位教授被聘请为技术顾问。
6 helping 2rGzDc     
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。
7 remains 1kMzTy     
n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹
参考例句:
  • He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
  • The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。
8 donor dstxI     
n.捐献者;赠送人;(组织、器官等的)供体
参考例句:
  • In these cases,the recipient usually takes care of the donor afterwards.在这类情况下,接受捐献者以后通常会照顾捐赠者。
  • The Doctor transplanted the donor's heart to Mike's chest cavity.医生将捐赠者的心脏移植进麦克的胸腔。
9 interventions b4e9b73905db5b0213891229ce84fdd3     
n.介入,干涉,干预( intervention的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • Economic analysis of government interventions deserves detailed discussion. 政府对经济的干预应该给予充分的论述。 来自辞典例句
  • The judge's frequent interventions made a mockery of justice. 法官的屡屡干预是对正义的践踏。 来自互联网
10 millennium x7DzO     
n.一千年,千禧年;太平盛世
参考例句:
  • The whole world was counting down to the new millennium.全世界都在倒计时迎接新千年的到来。
  • We waited as the clock ticked away the last few seconds of the old millennium.我们静候着时钟滴答走过千年的最后几秒钟。
11 fortified fortified     
adj. 加强的
参考例句:
  • He fortified himself against the cold with a hot drink. 他喝了一杯热饮御寒。
  • The enemy drew back into a few fortified points. 敌人收缩到几个据点里。
12 pregnancy lPwxP     
n.怀孕,怀孕期
参考例句:
  • Early pregnancy is often accompanied by nausea.怀孕早期常有恶心的现象。
  • Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of miscarriage.怀孕期吸烟会增加流产的危险。
13 fetus ekHx3     
n.胎,胎儿
参考例句:
  • In the fetus,blood cells are formed in different sites at different ages.胎儿的血细胞在不同时期生成在不同的部位。
  • No one knows why a fetus is not automatically rejected by the mother's immune system. 没有人知道为什么母亲的免疫系统不会自动排斥胎儿。
14 cerebral oUdyb     
adj.脑的,大脑的;有智力的,理智型的
参考例句:
  • Your left cerebral hemisphere controls the right-hand side of your body.你的左半脑控制身体的右半身。
  • He is a precise,methodical,cerebral man who carefully chooses his words.他是一个一丝不苟、有条理和理智的人,措辞谨慎。
15 hormones hormones     
n. 荷尔蒙,激素 名词hormone的复数形式
参考例句:
  • This hormone interacts closely with other hormones in the body. 这种荷尔蒙与体內其他荷尔蒙紧密地相互作用。
  • The adrenals produce a large per cent of a man's sex hormones. 肾上腺分泌人体的大部分性激素。

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