美国国家公共电台 NPR Why Does Ebola Keep Spreading In Congo? Here's A Major Clue

 

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

Now an update on the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic¹ Republic of Congo. There is a sliver² of good news. Infections are down in some of the biggest hot spots, but the disease³ is flaring⁴ up in new areas, bringing the total number of cases since August to nearly 900. And NPR's Nurith Aizenman reports responders are zeroing in on a major source of these new infections.

NURITH AIZENMAN, BYLINE⁵: Michel Yao is leading the on-the-ground response to this outbreak for the World Health Organization. Whenever someone's infected, his team goes through a checklist of questions like...

MICHEL YAO: Were you in contact with any sick person that have some symptoms like bleeding, like fever?

AIZENMAN: Say a relative you are taking care of or maybe...

YAO: Did you attend a funeral?

AIZENMAN: At traditional funerals, mourners often wash the body. But some weeks ago, as cases started erupting around two towns called Katwa and Butembo, the investigators⁶ found that patient after patient had something else in common. They had all recently visited a health clinic for treatment for some other disease like a respiratory infection or malaria⁷.

YAO: They say, I went to the hospital that treat me. I got clear. And then a few days after, I start having fevers.

AIZENMAN: That were the first signs of Ebola. WHO officials estimate⁸ about one-fifth of the recent cases in Katwa and Butembo were infected at clinics. And when Yao started visiting the clinics, it was pretty obvious how this was happening. Even the government-run facilities, large hospitals, hadn't set up triage tents to separate possible Ebola patients from everyone else.

YAO: This disease is not well-known in this part of the country. It is the first time.

AIZENMAN: Even more problematic, says Yao, are the hundreds of unofficial private health facilities in this area. Some are huge operations, others are in a neighbor's house, and in those...

YAO: Sometimes the patients are crowded, in one bed putting two children.

AIZENMAN: They're also often short on equipment like surgical⁹ gloves and syringes.

YAO: You can see people using several time the same gloves or the same equipment.

AIZENMAN: Then there are the traditional medicines a lot of them offer.

YAO: These traditional medicines, they dilute¹⁰ it in water.

AIZENMAN: And put it in a cup, which Yao says often isn't cleaned before it's passed on to the next patient. So Congo's government and the WHO have mounted¹¹ a massive¹² campaign to reach out to each of these facilities in Katwa and Butembo, train them on infection control, provide them with the equipment to do it.

Dr. Cimanuka Germain is with a group called International Medical Corps¹³ that's helping¹⁴ with the effort. He says, at one private clinic, when he told the staff to refer suspected Ebola cases to a hotline instead of treating them...

CIMANUKA GERMAIN: The were saying this is not possible for us because what we are doing is money for our clinic.

AIZENMAN: We're a business. Then there's the facility where Germain spent days training nurses on how to set up and operate a trash tent. Two weeks ago, he showed up for a surprise visit.

GERMAIN: One of them was there without wearing gloves.

AIZENMAN: No gloves. For Germain, the takeaway was clear - even weekly visits were not enough. Since then, he's assigned¹⁵ to people from his organization to keep watch at the clinic all day, every day. And he's done the same thing for the 11 other facilities International Medical Corps is working with. He's confident it will work - eventually.

GERMAIN: To change someone's behavior, it's not one day or two days, but you need time.

AIZENMAN: Unfortunately, he says, in this outbreak, time is one thing we don't really have. Nurith Aizenman, NPR News.

1 democratic   

adj.民主的；民主主义的，有民主精神的

参考例句：

• Their country has democratic government.他们国家实行民主政体。
• He has a democratic work-style.他作风民主。

2 sliver   

n.裂片，细片，梳毛；v.纵切，切成长片，剖开

参考例句：

• There was only one sliver of light in the darkness.黑暗中只有一点零星的光亮。
• Then,one night,Monica saw a thin sliver of the moon reappear.之后的一天晚上，莫尼卡看到了一个月牙。

3 disease   

n.疾病，弊端

参考例句：

• The doctors are trying to stamp out the disease.医生正在尽力消灭这种疾病。
• He fought against the disease for a long time.他同疾病做了长时间的斗争。

4 flaring   

a.火焰摇曳的，过份艳丽的

参考例句：

• A vulgar flaring paper adorned the walls. 墙壁上装饰着廉价的花纸。
• Goebbels was flaring up at me. 戈塔尔当时已对我面呈愠色。

5 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

6 investigators   

n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
• The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 malaria   

n.疟疾

参考例句：

• He had frequent attacks of malaria.他常患疟疾。
• Malaria is a kind of serious malady.疟疾是一种严重的疾病。

8 estimate   

n.估计，估量；评价，看法；vt.估计，估量

参考例句：

• We estimate the cost to be five thousand dollars.我们估计费用为5000美元。
• The lowest estimate would put the worth of the jewel at ＄200.按最低的评估这块宝石也值200美元。

9 surgical   

adj.外科的，外科医生的，手术上的

参考例句：

• He performs the surgical operations at the Red Cross Hospital.他在红十字会医院做外科手术。
• All surgical instruments must be sterilised before use.所有的外科手术器械在使用之前，必须消毒。

10 dilute   

vt.稀释，冲淡；adj.稀释的，冲淡的

参考例句：

• The water will dilute the wine.水能使酒变淡。
• Zinc displaces the hydrogen of dilute acids.锌置换了稀酸中的氢。

11 mounted   

adj.骑在马[自行车]上的；安装好的；裱好的v.登上，骑上( mount的过去式和过去分词)；增加，上升；上演；准备

参考例句：

• He mounted his horse and rode off. 他跨上马骑走了。
• He saddled his horse, mounted, and rode away at a gallop. 他给马套上鞍子，跨上马背疾驰而去。 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 corps   

n.(通信等兵种的)部队；(同类作的)一组

参考例句：

• The medical corps were cited for bravery in combat.医疗队由于在战场上的英勇表现而受嘉奖。
• When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时，他自愿参加了海军陆战队。

14 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

15 assigned   

adj.选定的；被布置的

参考例句：

• But read-only values are different,in that they are assigned at runtime.但是只读的值是不同的，因为它们是在运行时被赋值的。