VOA常速英语2015--竞争者合作开发埃博拉疫苗（在线收听）

Governments, Competitors Cooperate to Produce Ebola Vaccine 竞争者合作开发埃博拉疫苗

The worst Ebola outbreak in history is in its second year, and scientists around the world are working to develop a vaccine against the virus.  Since December of 2013, when the Ebola outbreak began in West Africa, the World Health Organization reports more than 20,000 people have been infected with the virus, and of those, more than 8,000 people have died.  

These researchers are working on a vaccine that could be among the first to be used in West Africa's Ebola epidemic. This laboratory near Rome is owned by pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline, or GSK.

这些研究者正在努力开发的疫苗将是用来对付西非埃博拉疫情的第一批疫苗，这个位于罗马附近的实验室为制药巨头葛兰素史克(GSK)所有。

Several teams are working on Ebola vaccines.  All say they have sped up the production process because of the urgent need and the number of lives at risk.  In November, GSK said the first trial of this vaccine was well-tolerated and produced an immune response in all of the 20 healthy adult volunteers who received it.

几个团队都在致力于埃博拉疫苗的开发，都表示由于迫切需要埃博拉和很多人生命危在旦夕，所以就加快了生产过程。去年11月，GSK称这种疫苗在第一次测试中耐受性良好，所有20名健康成人志愿者在接受该疫苗后都表现出免疫能力。

The GSK vaccine promotes the production of antibodies and also triggers an immune response of certain cells which destroy infected cells.  Dr. Riccardo Cortese heads this laboratory.

GSK疫苗能促进抗体的生产，还能引发一些细胞的免疫能力，这些细胞能杀死感染细胞。里卡多·科特斯是这个实验室的负责人。

"The Ebola virus can't be kept under control by a vaccine that stimulates antibodies only. There is solid evidence that traditional vaccines are not enough.  Our vaccine. instead, also stimulates another important branch of the immune system, the one that stimulates killer T cells that are able to recognize infected cells. The combination between two strategies is effective against Ebola," said Cortese.

“埃博拉病毒不能被只能激活抗体的单一疫苗所控制，有可靠证据表明传统疫苗是不够的。我们的疫苗还能激活免疫系统的另一重要部分，能激活能识别出感染细胞的杀伤性t细胞。两种策略的结合对遏制埃博拉来说是有效的。”

GSK says more trials are still needed before the vaccine will be ready for widespread use.

GSK称还需做更多测试，然后才能将疫苗进行大规模应用。

Merck, another pharmaceutical giant, announced it is resuming trials of a vaccine known by the code name VSV-ZEBOV.  A trial of this vaccine was suspended December 11, 2014,  after some of the volunteers reported having mild joint pain. Trials are continuing with a lower dose of the potential vaccine.

默克公司是另一家制药巨头，该公司宣布继续对一种编码名字为VSV-ZEBOV的疫苗进行测试。2014年11月由于一些志愿者称关节轻微疼痛，就暂停了对这种疫苗的测试。目前在用低剂量的这种潜在疫苗进行测试。

The situation in West Africa has created unusual partnerships. At a recent forum in Washington, Dr. Julie Gerberding, the president of Merck, said even rival pharmaceutical companies are working together.

西非的局势促成了不寻常的伙伴关系，最近在华盛顿举行的论坛上，默克公司总裁朱莉·格贝尔丁博士称甚至有竞争关系的制药公司现在也开始合作。

"There are some very special partnerships that are going on here. And one of them is the partnership between the people who are traditionally competitors," said Gerberding.

“现在有了一些非常特殊的伙伴关系，其中一个就是传统上的竞争者之间也建立了合作。”

Several potential vaccines are being developed and are now in clinical trials. This increases the possibility of developing at least one that is effective against Ebola.  And if more than one is effective, so much the better. It would increase the chances of that large numbers of people could be immunized, and bring the outbreak to an end.  It could also mean there would never again be another Ebola epidemic as bad as this one.

目前几种潜在的疫苗都在开发中，目前处于临床测试中，这样，开发出至少一种对埃博拉有效的疫苗的可能性就增加了。如果不止一种疫苗有效，那就更好，这样大量人口得到免疫的可能性就增加，并彻底结束这场疫情，这还意味着以后再也不可能出现像埃博拉这样糟糕的传染病再度出现。