VOA常速英语2013--联合用药能治愈部分丙肝患者（在线收听）

Combining Drugs Cures Some With Hepatitis C 联合用药能治愈部分丙肝患者 

At least 150 million people in the world have a chronic liver disease called hepatitis C, according to the World Health Organization.  Hepatitis C runs the gamut from a mild disease to a deadly one. While there's no vaccine to prevent it, researchers have found a combination of drugs that cures many difficult cases.

据世界健康组织报道全世界至少有一亿五千万个患有丙肝 - 一种慢性肝病。丙肝可以从一小病发展成一致命性的疾病。尽管现在没有疫苗预防丙肝，但研究人员已经发现联合用药可以治愈很多疑难病。

Researchers have been looking for ways to cure or prevent hepatitis C infections. Hepatitis C is contagious, and it can cause liver failure, liver cancer and death.

研究人员一直都在寻找治疗丙肝及防止感染丙肝的各种方法。丙肝具有传染性，会导致肝功能衰竭，发展为肝癌及导致死亡。

“Chronic hepatitis C infection is the leading reason why we have liver transplantation in the United States," said Dr. Anthony Fauci from the National Institutes of Health.

“慢性丙肝是美国人进行肝移植的主要原因。”国家卫生院人员安东尼·费希说。

Fauci headed a study that focused on patients who lived in poor, urban areas, mostly African-American who already had liver disease. These patients were given a new drug, sofosbuvir, which has not yet been approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

费希针对住在贫困乡村的病人（大部分是患有肝病的美国黑人）开展了一项研究。他向这些病人提供一种名为sofosbuvir的新药。这种药尚未得到美国食品药物管理监督局的批准。

“Sofosbuvir is an agent that acts directly against the hepatitis C virus itself. It interferes with one of the enzymes that’s important for this virus to replicate itself," Fauci said.

“sofosbuvir是一种直接作用于丙肝病毒的药物。sofosbuvir能干扰对丙肝病毒复制起重要作用的一种酶。”费希说。

The patients also received rivavirin, an older drug that fights hepatitis C. After receiving both drugs for a period of time, between 50 and 70 percent of the patients were cured. They did not have the hepatitis C virus in their blood.

这些病人也使用rivavilin（一种更早用来抗丙肝的药）。使用这两种药物治疗一段时间后，50%到70%的病人痊愈了，在他们的血液中查不到丙肝病毒。

The treatment excluded interferon - a drug frequently given by injection to combat the disease.

对丙肝的治疗不包括使用干扰素（一种通过注射给药方式来抗丙肝病毒的药物）。

Interferon can cause serious effects that make it difficult to take, but the combination of drugs given in the trial had minimal side effects, and none of the patients dropped out.

干扰素对人体有严重的反应，这使得服用它很困难。联合用药副作用小，因此没有病人放弃治疗。

Hepatitis C is considered a silent killer because most people don't know they have it until the disease is advanced. Catching it early prevents liver cancer and liver failure, and improves the odds of a cure, which is why Fauci says aggressive screening is as important as finding drugs that are easy to take.

丙肝被称为隐形杀手，因为人们往往到丙肝病情严重时才发现得了丙肝。早期发现丙肝有利于预防肝癌、肝衰竭，提高治愈的可能性。这就是费希为什么会说积极筛查和找到更容易服用的药物一样重要的原因。

“The idea of getting these people diagnosed and, if they need it, to get them into a treatment regimen is a very important public health imperative," he said.

“早期诊断丙肝，如果丙肝患者需要的话，给他们提供治疗方案，这一观念是一重要的公共卫生必要的措施。”他说。

The study appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

该项研究发表于美国医学联合杂志。