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SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Health Officials Seek Ways to Fight Extreme Drug-Resistant1 TBBy George Grow, Jerilyn Watson and Jill Moss2

Broadcast: Tuesday, September 26, 2006

VOICE ONE:

This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Dpug Johnson.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Faith Lapidus. This week -- warnings about a form of tuberculosis3 that resists almost all treatment ...

VOICE ONE:

New rules about sales of emergency birth control in the United States ...

VOICE TWO:

And some good news if you are looking for dinosaurs5.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:


At Church of Scotland Hospital in Tugela Ferry, South Africa, 52 of 53 patients found to have extreme drug-resistant TB quickly died of it

Health experts are concerned about a newly identified threat from tuberculosis. They call it extreme drug-resistant tuberculosis. In one recent outbreak, fifty-three people became infected in KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa. All but one of them died after attempts at treatment failed.

A South African news report last week said six gold miners in Free State province were also found to have extreme drug-resistant TB.

Tuberculosis is a bacterial6 infection that is spread through the air and usually attacks the lungs. The disease kills almost two million people each year. The World Health Organization says one-third of the world's population is infected with TB. Most people who are infected never develop active tuberculosis, so they never get sick from it.

But people with HIV and other conditions that weaken the body's defenses are more likely to develop tuberculosis. Forty-four of the fifty-three patients in KwaZulu-Natal had been tested for the virus that causes AIDS. The tests showed that all forty-four had HIV.

VOICE TWO:

Extreme drug-resistant tuberculosis is the name for TB strains that resist not only the two main drugs used to fight the disease. They also resist three or more of the six kinds of drugs that are used when the first line of treatment fails.

World health officials say it has been found in all parts of the world but is most common in the former Soviet7 republics and in Asia. These recent findings are based on information from two thousand through two thousand four.

Latvia has one of the highest rates of drug-resistant TB in the world. There, nineteen percent of the cases of drug-resistant tuberculosis met the definition of the newly identified threat. In the United States four percent of cases were identified as extreme drug-resistant TB.

VOICE ONE:

The World Health Organization says the drug resistance results mainly from poor care of TB patients. This includes incorrect treatment plans and the use of poor quality drugs. It also includes the failure of patients to complete the months of treatment required to cure tuberculosis.

The W.H.O. says drug resistant TB appears to be increasing in Africa. The rates are still low compared to Eastern Europe and Asia. But the high rates of HIV in Africa mean that drug-resistant TB could sharply increase the number of deaths.

VOICE TWO:

The South African Medical Research Council says the recent cases in KwaZulu-Natal demonstrate the risks for people with HIV. The patients died an average of twenty-five days after drug-resistant TB was first suspected. These included patients who had been taking antiretroviral drugs to control their HIV infections.

Experts warn that the spread of extreme drug-resistant TB could harm efforts to treat HIV and AIDS.

Earlier this month, W.H.O. officials joined TB experts and representatives from eleven African countries at a two-day meeting in Johannesburg. They agreed on a seven-point plan of action to control extreme drug-resistant tuberculosis. They said the first step needed is to urgently do studies in high-risk countries to identify the extent of the threat. They also said more laboratories are needed to carry out testing.

VOICE ONE:

People with TB have to take a combination of several drugs daily for at least six months. Many stop as soon as they feel better. Yet that can lead to an infection that resists treatment.

In nineteen ninety the World Health Organization developed the DOTS program, or Directly Observed Treatment, Short-course. Health workers watch tuberculosis patients take their pills every day.

Earlier this year, an international partnership8 of organizations announced a plan to expand the program. The ten-year plan also aims to finance research into new TB drugs. The Global Alliance for TB Drug Development says its long-term goal is a treatment that could work in as few as ten doses. The four most common TB drugs currently used are more than forty years old.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.

Federal officials in the United States have eased restrictions9 on sales of the emergency birth-control drug called Plan B. The Food and Drug Administration will now permit women to buy it without a doctor's order if they are at least eighteen years old. Those age seventeen and younger will still need to get a prescription10.

The newly approved sales are expected to begin by the end of the year. But Plan B will not be as widely sold as other medicines that are sold without a prescription. And buyers will have to present proof of age.

Men may also buy Plan B for their sexual partners.

VOICE ONE:

Plan B is taken by mouth. It is often called the morning-after pill. It contains a manufactured form of the hormone11 progestin. Progestin is widely used in birth control pills. But Plan B contains more of it.

The drug comes as two pills. The second pill is taken twelve hours after the first. Plan B works by preventing a woman from producing an egg or by preventing the egg from being fertilized12. In addition, it may prevent a fertilized egg from becoming implanted in the uterus.

Barr Pharmaceuticals13 of New Jersey14 makes Plan B. The company says the product is almost ninety percent effective if taken within seventy-two hours of a single act of unprotected sex.

Barr says Plan B reduces the risk of pregnancy15 but will not end an existing pregnancy.

VOICE TWO:

The recent action by the Food and Drug Administration followed almost three years of consideration and debate. A year ago, a former F.D.A. director said the agency did not have the power to make such a decision.

Supporters of the action say Plan B will reduce the number of women who get abortions17. But others say Plan B is a form of abortion16 because it uses scientific methods to prevent the beginning of life.

Critics also say it will be difficult to make sure buyers meet the age requirements -- or that an older person is not buying Plan B for a younger one.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

A new report suggests that scientists will find many new kinds of dinosaurs during the next century. Scientists identify all creatures, including dinosaurs, by groups or genera. The report says that at least seventy percent of dinosaur4 genera have yet to be found. It also estimates that seventy five percent of the currently unknown dinosaur genera will be discovered in the next sixty to one hundred years.

Researchers Steve Wang and Peter Dodson wrote the report. Mister Wang is a mathematician18 at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. Mister Dodson is a scientist with the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. The Proceedings19 of the National Academy of Sciences published their findings.

VOICE TWO:

The report says the two researchers believe there could be up to one thousand eight hundred fifty different kinds of dinosaurs. It says the fossilized remains20 of five hundred twenty-seven of these ancient creatures have been found.

Mister Dodson produced a similar estimate in nineteen ninety. Comparison with the recent study shows a big increase in discoveries of dinosaur fossils.

The report noted21 that for more than one hundred years, science recognized fewer than three hundred kinds of dinosaurs. Their remains were found mainly in the United States, Britain and Canada. In the past twenty years, the number of places with fossils has increased by one hundred percent. Many fossils have been found in China and South America.

VOICE ONE:

The researchers say they made the report because little work has been done to estimate the number of dinosaur genera.

Mister Wang says a child born today could expect a satisfying life's work in the study of dinosaurs. But he also says that almost half of dinosaur genera that lived might have died without leaving a fossil as evidence of their existence.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by George Grow, Jerilyn Watson and Jill Moss. Brianna Blake was our producer. I'm Faith Lapidus.

VOICE ONE:

And I'm Doug Johnson. You can download transcripts22 and MP3 files and search through archives of our programs at www.unsv.com. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America.


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点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 resistant 7Wvxh     
adj.(to)抵抗的,有抵抗力的
参考例句:
  • Many pests are resistant to the insecticide.许多害虫对这种杀虫剂有抵抗力。
  • They imposed their government by force on the resistant population.他们以武力把自己的统治强加在持反抗态度的人民头上。
2 moss X6QzA     
n.苔,藓,地衣
参考例句:
  • Moss grows on a rock.苔藓生在石头上。
  • He was found asleep on a pillow of leaves and moss.有人看见他枕着树叶和苔藓睡着了。
3 tuberculosis bprym     
n.结核病,肺结核
参考例句:
  • People used to go to special health spring to recover from tuberculosis.人们常去温泉疗养胜地治疗肺结核。
  • Tuberculosis is a curable disease.肺结核是一种可治愈的病。
4 dinosaur xuSxp     
n.恐龙
参考例句:
  • Are you trying to tell me that David was attacked by a dinosaur?你是想要告诉我大卫被一支恐龙所攻击?
  • He stared at the faithful miniature of the dinosaur.他凝视著精确的恐龙缩小模型。
5 dinosaurs 87f9c39b9e3f358174d58a584c2727b4     
n.恐龙( dinosaur的名词复数 );守旧落伍的人,过时落后的东西
参考例句:
  • The brontosaurus was one of the largest of all dinosaurs. 雷龙是所有恐龙中最大的一种。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Dinosaurs have been extinct for millions of years. 恐龙绝种已有几百万年了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
6 bacterial dy5z8q     
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。
7 Soviet Sw9wR     
adj.苏联的,苏维埃的;n.苏维埃
参考例句:
  • Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
  • Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。
8 partnership NmfzPy     
n.合作关系,伙伴关系
参考例句:
  • The company has gone into partnership with Swiss Bank Corporation.这家公司已经和瑞士银行公司建立合作关系。
  • Martin has taken him into general partnership in his company.马丁已让他成为公司的普通合伙人。
9 restrictions 81e12dac658cfd4c590486dd6f7523cf     
约束( restriction的名词复数 ); 管制; 制约因素; 带限制性的条件(或规则)
参考例句:
  • I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
  • a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制
10 prescription u1vzA     
n.处方,开药;指示,规定
参考例句:
  • The physician made a prescription against sea- sickness for him.医生给他开了个治晕船的药方。
  • The drug is available on prescription only.这种药只能凭处方购买。
11 hormone uyky3     
n.荷尔蒙,激素,内分泌
参考例句:
  • Hormone implants are used as growth boosters.激素植入物被用作生长辅助剂。
  • 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。
12 Fertilized 0f66e269f3e72fa001554304e59712da     
v.施肥( fertilize的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • The study of psychology has recently been widely cross-fertilized by new discoveries in genetics. 心理学研究最近从遗传学的新发现中受益匪浅。
  • Flowers are often fertilized by bees as they gather nectar. 花常在蜜蜂采蜜时受粉。
13 pharmaceuticals be065c8a4af3a2d925d11969faac34cf     
n.医药品;药物( pharmaceutical的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • the development of new pharmaceuticals 新药的开发
  • The companies are pouring trillions of yen into biotechnology research,especially for pharmaceuticals and new seeds. 这些公司将大量资金投入生物工艺学研究,尤其是药品和新种子方面。 来自《简明英汉词典》
14 jersey Lp5zzo     
n.运动衫
参考例句:
  • He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
  • They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致,都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。
15 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。
16 abortion ZzjzxH     
n.流产,堕胎
参考例句:
  • She had an abortion at the women's health clinic.她在妇女保健医院做了流产手术。
  • A number of considerations have led her to have a wilful abortion.多种考虑使她执意堕胎。
17 abortions 4b6623953f87087bb025549b49471574     
n.小产( abortion的名词复数 );小产胎儿;(计划)等中止或夭折;败育
参考例句:
  • The Venerable Master: By not having abortions, by not killing living beings. 上人:不堕胎、不杀生。 来自互联网
  • Conclusion Chromosome abnormality is one of the causes of spontaneous abortions. 结论:染色体异常是导致反复自然流产的原因之一。 来自互联网
18 mathematician aoPz2p     
n.数学家
参考例句:
  • The man with his back to the camera is a mathematician.背对着照相机的人是位数学家。
  • The mathematician analyzed his figures again.这位数学家再次分析研究了他的这些数字。
19 proceedings Wk2zvX     
n.进程,过程,议程;诉讼(程序);公报
参考例句:
  • He was released on bail pending committal proceedings. 他交保获释正在候审。
  • to initiate legal proceedings against sb 对某人提起诉讼
20 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。
21 noted 5n4zXc     
adj.著名的,知名的
参考例句:
  • The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
  • Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。
22 transcripts 525c0b10bb61e5ddfdd47d7faa92db26     
n.抄本( transcript的名词复数 );转写本;文字本;副本
参考例句:
  • Like mRNA, both tRNA and rRNA are transcripts of chromosomal DNA. tRNA及rRNA同mRNA一样,都是染色体DNA的转录产物。 来自辞典例句
  • You can't take the transfer students'exam without your transcripts. 没有成绩证明书,你就不能参加转学考试。 来自辞典例句

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