DEVELOPMENT REPORT - New TB Vaccine to be Tested

DEVELOPMENT REPORT
–
June 17, 2002: New TB Vaccine¹ to be Tested

By Jill Moss²

This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

Scientists are preparing to test the safety of a new vaccine medicine that could protect people against
tuberculosis³. Earlier this month, researchers at the World Congress on Tuberculosis in Washington, D.C.,
announced the testing. It is to begin by the end of this year in San Francisco, California. This will be the first time
in nearly eighty years that a new vaccine has been tested against T-B.

Researchers say the new vaccine is a form of an old vaccine called B -C-G. This vaccine is
only partly effective in preventing the disease. It is used in developing countries to prevent
severe tuberculosis in children. However, B -C-G does not protect adults from the disease.

About two-million people die from T-B each year. Currently, about one-third of the
world’s population is infected with the bacteria that cause tuberculosis. Their infection is
inactive. T-B infection can remain inactive in a person’s lungs for years, or even a
lifetime. The disease becomes active in about ten percent of all cases.

T-B causes a high body temperature and coughing. Infected people spread the disease by
releasing particles from their mouths when they cough, sneeze, spit or talk. Someone with
active T-B must take medicine each day for six to nine months to halt progression of the disease.

The World Health Organization has a five-step program to guarantee that T-B patients take their medicine
correctly. The program is called Directly Observed Treatment, Short-Course, or DOTS. Health officials are
working hard to expand the program around the world. However, only twenty-seven percent of all tuberculosis
cases are discovered and treated within the DOTS program. Health experts say a new vaccine to prevent T-B is
very important.

The last new drug to treat T-B was created more than forty years ago. Since that time, different forms of the
disease have become resistant⁴ to drugs currently being used. However, researchers believe this is about to change
because of the discovery of the genetic⁵ structure of the bacterium⁶ that causes the disease.

That discovery four years ago has helped scientists better understand how T-B bacteria work. It also has given
researchers information to help them develop new drugs and vaccines⁷.

This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss.

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1 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。

2 moss   

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   

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 resistant   

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。

5 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。

6 bacterium   

n.(pl.)bacteria 细菌

参考例句：

• The bacterium possibly goes in the human body by the mouth.细菌可能通过口进入人体。
• A bacterium is identified as the cause for his duodenal ulcer.一种细菌被断定为造成他十二指肠溃疡的根源。

7 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。