DEVELOPMENT REPORT - Tuberculosis Control Program in India

DEVELOPMENT REPORT – December 9, 2002: Tuberculosis¹ Control Program in India

By Jill Moss²

This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

There are more people with tuberculosis in India than in any other country in the world. Each year, tuberculosis
infects about two-million people in India and kills nearly five-hundred-thousand people. However, this is starting
to change. Researchers recently studied a tuberculosis control program in India. The study says the program has
saved about two-hundred-thousand lives and more than four-hundred-million dollars.

The New England Journal of Medicine published a study about the tuberculosis control program in October. The
Indian government started the program in nineteen-ninety-three. Since that time, about three-and-one-half million
patients have been examined for tuberculosis. Almost eight-hundred-thousand patients have received medical
treatment.

Also, more than forty percent of India’s population can now get tuberculosis services. And more than two-
hundred-thousand health workers have been trained to examine and treat people with the disease. This makes
India’s tuberculosis control program one of the world’s largest public health programs.

Thomas Frieden (FREED-en) of the United States was one of the people who wrote the study. He says that
India’s tuberculosis control program has strengthened the country’s general health care system. For example,
he says the quality of work done in laboratories has improved.

However, Doctor Frieden says the program includes only half of India. He says the goal is to continue the
program while extending it to the rest of the country. Doctor Frieden believes this will be difficult because of
health threats from the virus that causes AIDS and because some forms of tuberculosis are resistant³ to drugs.

Currently, the World Health Organization estimates that about one-third of the world’s population are infected
with the bacteria that cause tuberculosis. Tuberculosis becomes active in only about ten percent of all cases.
However, it can remain in a victim’s lungs for years or even a lifetime.

Infected people spread tuberculosis by releasing particles from their mouths when they cough, sneeze, spit or
talk. Signs of the disease include high body temperature and coughing.

A person with active T-B must take medicine each day for six to nine months to halt progression of the disease.

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

Adapted from a report by VOA's David McAlary

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1 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。

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 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。