HEALTH REPORT - Staph Vaccine

HEALTH REPORT -May 29, 2002: Staph Vaccine¹

By Nancy Steinbach
This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

American researchers say they have developed the first vaccine medicine that can prevent a staphylococcus
bacterial² infection.

The staphylococcus aureus bacterium³ is known as staph. It is a common and usually harmless
bacterium that lives in a person’s body. It can cause minor⁴ skin infections and infections in
wounds. However, it can be deadly if it invades the blood. It can cause the lung disease
pneumonia⁵ and life-threatening blood poisoning.

Staph infections are a serious problem in American hospitals. They affect two-million people

each year. About ten-million hospital patients are in danger of developing staph infections each
year. These patients have weak defense⁶ systems against disease.

Doctors say the new vaccine may provide a way to prevent these serious infections in hospitals. Researchers
reported their vaccine test results in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The study involved more than one-thousand-eight-hundred adults at seventy-three medical centers in California.
All of the patients had kidney disease and were getting kidney dialysis. This is a treatment that removes
dangerous chemicals from the blood.

The researchers chose this group because dialysis patients are among the most likely to get staph infections.
These patients also are least likely to get good results from a vaccine. Half of the dialysis patients received the
vaccine. The other half got an inactive substance. Among the group getting the inactive substance, twenty-six
people developed staph infections. Only eleven people who got the vaccine became infected.

The researchers found that one injection of the vaccine provided protection against staph for ten months. The
vaccine caused the body to make new antibodies against the staph bacteria. Eighty -six percent of the patients who
got the vaccine showed high levels of an antibody for the bacteria.

The vaccine is called StaphVAX. Scientists at the National Institutes of Health near Washington, D.C. created the
vaccine. Scientists at the Nabi Corporation of Boca Raton, Florida, are developing the vaccine. The company
paid for the study.

The company is planning another study involving a larger number of dialysis patients to confirm these results.

This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach.

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1 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。

2 bacterial   

a.细菌的

参考例句：

• Bacterial reproduction is accelerated in weightless space. 在失重的空间，细菌繁殖加快了。
• Brain lesions can be caused by bacterial infections. 大脑损伤可能由细菌感染引起。

3 bacterium   

n.(pl.)bacteria 细菌

参考例句：

• The bacterium possibly goes in the human body by the mouth.细菌可能通过口进入人体。
• A bacterium is identified as the cause for his duodenal ulcer.一种细菌被断定为造成他十二指肠溃疡的根源。

4 minor   

adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修

参考例句：

• The young actor was given a minor part in the new play.年轻的男演员在这出新戏里被分派担任一个小角色。
• I gave him a minor share of my wealth.我把小部分财产给了他。

5 pneumonia   

n.肺炎

参考例句：

• Cage was struck with pneumonia in her youth.凯奇年轻时得过肺炎。
• Pneumonia carried him off last week.肺炎上星期夺去了他的生命。

6 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。