VOA标准英语2012--Changing the Course of the Epidemic

 

Changing the Course of the Epidemic¹

A former president of the International AIDS Society says it will take a combination of scientific and human rights advances to end the epidemic. Dr. Julio Montaner made his comments at the 19th International AIDS Conference in Washington.

Montaner pioneered Treatment as Prevention at Canada’s BC Center for Excellence² in HIV/AIDS. The method of using antiretroviral drugs not only to treat infected people, but to protect uninfected as well, is now an accepted practice.

But despite having a dramatic effect on the course of the epidemic, he said, Treatment as Prevention is not enough.

“I want to be perfectly³ clear. While we have been strong proponents⁴ of this since our landmark⁵ call for action in 2006 in The Lancet – and since then we’ve been reporting continuously on the improvements that we have seen with this strategy in British Columbia – I’m the first one to realize that if we are going to truly control this disease we’re going to need a cure and a vaccine⁶. In the absence of those two, the ability of Treatment as Prevention to truly control the epidemic is a bit of a rhetorical excess if you want,” he said.

Montaner said achievements in science can only work if many people change what they believe, especially when it comes to such high risk groups as men who have sex with men, sex workers and intravenous drug users.

Dr. Julio Montaner, BC Center for Excellence in HIV/AIDS. (De Capua) 

“Well, I think it’s bigotry⁷. I think it’s stigma⁸. It’s discrimination. One thing is when you’re ignorant because you don’t know – so you’re an honest ignorant – but the other thing is when your ignorance is based on your preconceived biases⁹. In other words, you’re closing your eyes to the evidence. And I think what we have today is a much more perverse¹⁰ situation, which is we know how to go forward and we still are unwilling¹¹ or unable to implement¹² the necessary legal reforms, for example, to make things happen,” he said.

Montaner said British Columbia, where he works, continues to take the steps necessary to tackle HIV/AIDS on many levels. And it’s paying off.

“We are the only jurisdiction¹³ in Canada that has seen decreasing HIV rates. And the reason is because we have a focused, aggressive HIV program. We have a progressive leadership in the province and we have a committed population to actually do the right thing. We can do things that are illegal in other parts of the country,” he said.

One of the programs deals with commercial sex workers. While the provincial¹⁴ government has not legalized brothels, Montaner says, it “tolerates” them. Some brothels are actually located in publicly subsidized housing. As a result, sex workers are less likely to be victims of violence and more likely to receive health and HIV prevention services.

“I don’t mean it literally¹⁵, but I said, look, we could stop the research, we could stop writing guidelines, and we could just say let’s implement everything that we know that works with a liberal frame of mind and this world would be a totally different world when it comes to HIV and AIDS, of course, and many other things as well,” he said.

Montaner was chair of AIDS 2010 and helped write the Vienna Declaration. It called for a decriminalization of drug use, saying it should be treated as a health issue instead.

“The war on drugs,” Montaner said, “has been an abject¹⁶ failure. Nobody actually believes that that’s the way to go and yet we’re still criminalizing people for the possession of small amounts of drugs for personal use. I mean these people need public health. They don’t need prisons. If they were not infected with HIV to begin with they can get HIV in the prison. This is not working.”

In British Columbia, addicts¹⁷ are offered clean needles, which they are not permitted to share. And they are regularly tested and, if need be, treated for HIV. The program, called Insite, has been in operation for about eight years.

He also helped write the D.C. Declaration for AIDS 2012 in Washington.

“What the D.C. Declaration is basically asking for is that we, once and for all, accept that we have the tools to change the course of the epidemic in a dramatic fashion. If we implement the things that we know – the evidence-based solutions that we have demonstrated over so many years – we are going to see a turning point in the epidemic. Could we eliminate HIV? No, that’s not the point. The point is that we’re going to see the curves bending downwards¹⁸ in a very dramatic way,” he said.

Dr. Montaner is calling for a redoubling of investments into finding a vaccine and a cure for HIV. He says that should be “the legacy¹⁹ left for generations to come.”

1 epidemic   

n.流行病；盛行；adj.流行性的，流传极广的

参考例句：

• That kind of epidemic disease has long been stamped out.那种传染病早已绝迹。
• The authorities tried to localise the epidemic.当局试图把流行病限制在局部范围。

2 excellence   

n.优秀，杰出，(pl.)优点，美德

参考例句：

• His art has reached a high degree of excellence.他的艺术已达到炉火纯青的地步。
• My performance is far below excellence.我的表演离优秀还差得远呢。

3 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

4 proponents   

n.（某事业、理论等的）支持者，拥护者( proponent的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Reviewing courts were among the most active proponents of hybrid rulemaking procedures. 复审法院是最积极的混合型规则制定程序的建议者。 来自英汉非文学 - 行政法
• Proponents of such opinions were arrested as 'traitors. ' 提倡这种主张的人马上作为“卖国贼”逮捕起来。 来自辞典例句

5 landmark   

n.陆标，划时代的事，地界标

参考例句：

• The Russian Revolution represents a landmark in world history.俄国革命是世界历史上的一个里程碑。
• The tower was once a landmark for ships.这座塔曾是船只的陆标。

6 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。

7 bigotry   

n.偏见，偏执，持偏见的行为[态度]等

参考例句：

• She tried to dissociate herself from the bigotry in her past.她力图使自己摆脱她以前的偏见。
• At least we can proceed in this matter without bigotry.目前这件事咱们至少可以毫无偏见地进行下去。

8 stigma   

n.耻辱，污名；(花的)柱头

参考例句：

• Being an unmarried mother used to carry a social stigma.做未婚母亲在社会上曾是不光彩的事。
• The stigma of losing weighed heavily on the team.失败的耻辱让整个队伍压力沉重。

9 biases   

偏见( bias的名词复数 )； 偏爱； 特殊能力； 斜纹

参考例句：

• Stereotypes represent designer or researcher biases and assumptions, rather than factual data. 它代表设计师或者研究者的偏见和假设，而不是实际的数据。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
• The net effect of biases on international comparisons is easily summarized. 偏差对国际比较的基本影响容易概括。

10 perverse   

adj.刚愎的；坚持错误的，行为反常的

参考例句：

• It would be perverse to stop this healthy trend.阻止这种健康发展的趋势是没有道理的。
• She gets a perverse satisfaction from making other people embarrassed.她有一种不正常的心态，以使别人难堪来取乐。

11 unwilling   

adj.不情愿的

参考例句：

• The natives were unwilling to be bent by colonial power.土著居民不愿受殖民势力的摆布。
• His tightfisted employer was unwilling to give him a raise.他那吝啬的雇主不肯给他加薪。

12 implement   

n.(pl.)工具，器具；vt.实行，实施，执行

参考例句：

• Don't undertake a project unless you can implement it.不要承担一项计划，除非你能完成这项计划。
• The best implement for digging a garden is a spade.在花园里挖土的最好工具是铁锹。

13 jurisdiction   

n.司法权，审判权，管辖权，控制权

参考例句：

• It doesn't lie within my jurisdiction to set you free.我无权将你释放。
• Changzhou is under the jurisdiction of Jiangsu Province.常州隶属江苏省。

14 provincial   

adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人

参考例句：

• City dwellers think country folk have provincial attitudes.城里人以为乡下人思想迂腐。
• Two leading cadres came down from the provincial capital yesterday.昨天从省里下来了两位领导干部。

15 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

16 abject   

adj.极可怜的，卑屈的

参考例句：

• This policy has turned out to be an abject failure.这一政策最后以惨败而告终。
• He had been obliged to offer an abject apology to Mr.Alleyne for his impertinence.他不得不低声下气，为他的无礼举动向艾莱恩先生请罪。

17 addicts   

有…瘾的人( addict的名词复数 )； 入迷的人

参考例句：

• a unit for rehabilitating drug addicts 帮助吸毒者恢复正常生活的机构
• There is counseling to help Internet addicts?even online. 有咨询机构帮助网络沉迷者。 来自超越目标英语 第3册

18 downwards   

adj./adv.向下的（地），下行的（地）

参考例句：

• He lay face downwards on his bed.他脸向下伏在床上。
• As the river flows downwards,it widens.这条河愈到下游愈宽。

19 legacy   

n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西

参考例句：

• They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
• He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。