美国国家公共电台 NPR 4 Years After MH17 Downing, Advocates Urge Continued Attention To AIDS Crisis

 

KORVA COLEMAN, HOST:

Four years ago, six delegates¹ on their way to the International AIDS Conference died in the shootdown of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine. Delegates and nearly 300 other people were killed hours after their flight took off from Amsterdam. That is where over 15,000 experts in public health and global development are gathering² for this year's AIDS conference, which starts tomorrow. AIDS kills about a million people every year. Owen Ryan is the executive³ director of the International AIDS Society, which organizes the meeting.

Welcome, Mr. Ryan.

OWEN RYAN: Thank you for having me.

COLEMAN: Mr. Ryan, first of all, my condolences for the loss of your colleagues. I want to ask you particularly about one of the colleagues that you lost, Joep Lange, who was on flight MH17. He was a giant in the field. Can you tell us a little bit about his contributions to fighting the AIDS crisis⁴?

RYAN: Yeah. It's hard to describe in short ways all the ways that Joep had kind of really transformed the HIV movement. One very large way, though, was how he made the world wake up to the need for antiretroviral treatment in Africa. He was one of the first researchers, scientists, activists⁶ who was forcing donor⁷ governments to face the problems that were in Africa and to get rid of the impediments that were keeping people away from life-saving treatment. He is in large part to thank for many of the millions of people who are on treatment today.

COLEMAN: HIV, the virus that leads to AIDS, also continues to spread. It infects about 2 million people more every year. What needs to be done to stop or slow this down?

RYAN: Honestly, what needs to be done is this sense of complacency that has settled on many of us. There's really this feeling in many parts of the world that AIDS is over, and that is really far from true. It's one of the reasons we miss Joep the most right now. He had an unbelievable ability to speak truth to power, regardless of who he was speaking to. He just knew how to go right to them and say, what you believe is not true and we need more money for this.

COLEMAN: Drugs can keep HIV from turning into AIDS. Are we closer to a cure, a vaccine⁸, something?

RYAN: For one of the first times, we're doing a large-scale clinical trial for vaccines⁹ in South Africa. And South Africa is one of those countries where if we can get it right there, we can get it right in a lot of places around the world. But until we get more people on treatment in the short term, we're going to keep trying to play catch up, so we're really hoping we can do both things at the same time - get people on treatment and then longer-term prevention options.

COLEMAN: Are there countries or regions in the world where the epidemic¹⁰ is getting worse? And why?

RYAN: Eastern Europe and Central Asia is a big focus of this conference. You've seen that over time, as economies have improved, donors¹¹ have walked away, and with them walking away has walked away political will. So in many places - and this also includes Russia - you've seen the epidemic come back with force. And you're seeing it in urban centers and rural areas, people who are just completely away from treatment and this massive¹² explosion in new infections. I think people just don't realize it.

COLEMAN: People died of AIDS for decades before scientists discovered the virus that causes it. How worried should we be about other unknown viruses?

RYAN: Well, we always have to be aware. And it's the exact moment you take your finger off the pulse of epidemiology that you start to see problems occur. We need to fund the systems that keep us vigilant¹³ against the next great disease that's coming because we know it'll happen. We've seen this with Ebola. We've seen this with SARS in the past. We need to keep things like the CDC and WHO - we need to keep them vibrant¹⁴ and strong and paying attention to all of this.

COLEMAN: How do you see the relationship between science and politics in the fight against AIDS?

RYAN: Very early on in the process, people saw the need to unite people living with the virus, their health care providers and the clinicians who are doing this research. And you see really uniquely this kind of scientist activist⁵ that doesn't exist in a lot of other places because they can speak to policymakers about evidence in a way that many people can't.

COLEMAN: If they were alive today, what do you think Dr. Lange and the other colleagues that you lost would say about progress being made in the effort to fight AIDS and HIV infection?

RYAN: There's no question that Joep would think we're going too slow. But I'm hopeful that people will still remember them and know it's important we keep this fight going.

COLEMAN: Owen Ryan is the executive director of the International AIDS Society. Mr. Ryan, thank you for speaking with us.

 

RYAN: Thank you.

1 delegates   

代表，代表团成员( delegate的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The conference was attended by delegates from 56 countries. 此次会议有来自56个国家的代表出席。
• Delegates expressed strong opposition to the plans. 代表强烈反对这些计划。

2 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

3 executive   

adj.执行的，行政的；n.执行者，行政官，经理

参考例句：

• A good executive usually gets on well with people.一个好的高级管理人员通常与人们相处得很好。
• He is a man of great executive ability.他是个具有极高管理能力的人。

4 crisis   

n.危机，危急关头，决定性时刻，关键阶段

参考例句：

• He had proved that he could be relied on in a crisis.他已表明，在紧要关头他是可以信赖的。
• The topic today centers about the crisis in the Middle East.今天课题的中心是中东危机。

5 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

6 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 donor   

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。

8 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。

9 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。

10 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。

11 donors   

n.捐赠者( donor的名词复数 )；献血者；捐血者；器官捐献者

参考例句：

• Please email us to be removed from our active list of blood donors. 假如你想把自己的名字从献血联系人名单中删去，请给我们发电子邮件。
• About half this amount comes from individual donors and bequests. 这笔钱大约有一半来自个人捐赠及遗赠。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 massive   

adj.巨大的，大规模的，大量的，大范围的

参考例句：

• A massive sea search has failed to find any survivors.经过大规模的海上搜救仍未找到幸存者。
• He drank a massive amount of alcohol.他喝了大量的烈酒。

13 vigilant   

adj.警觉的，警戒的，警惕的

参考例句：

• He has to learn how to remain vigilant through these long nights.他得学会如何在这漫长的黑夜里保持警觉。
• The dog kept a vigilant guard over the house.这只狗警醒地守护着这所房屋。

14 vibrant   

adj.震颤的，响亮的，充满活力的，精力充沛的，(色彩)鲜明的

参考例句：

• He always uses vibrant colours in his paintings. 他在画中总是使用鲜明的色彩。
• She gave a vibrant performance in the leading role in the school play.她在学校表演中生气盎然地扮演了主角。