VOA慢速英语2014 贫穷国家儿童死亡率与发达国家之间的差距缩小

 

AS IT IS 2014-11-12 Child Death Rates Narrow Between Poor and Rich Countries

Death rates of young children have dropped to record lows in developing countries. Experts say there are two main reasons for the decrease. They are improved government action, and simple protective health measures. Experts say the two have helped narrow the death rates between the richest and the poorest families.

The United Nations says 12.7 million children under the age of five died in 1990. By comparison, U.N. officials say about 6.3 million young children died last year. That is a huge drop, but still represents about 17,000 deaths every day.

Eran Bendavid is a population health expert at Stanford University in California. He credits simple things for the sharp drop in deaths among low and moderate-income countries. They include malarial¹ bed nets and oral rehydration salts for treating diarrheal diseases.

“The poorest of the poor – we’re talking about countries where the people live or $1 or $2 per day on average – have seen enormous declines in mortality. Their children are surviving at rates they have never seen before in those contexts.”          

Eran Bendavid worked with other researchers at Stanford’s School of Medicine on a study. They used population and health studies to investigate child mortality rates in 54 countries. The research involved information about 1.2 million women in more than 929,000 families.

The investigators² compared death rates between 2000 and 2007 with records from 2008 to 2012. They found under-five death rates fell 4.3 deaths for every 1,000 live births among poor families. Among middle-income families, rates fell 3.36 deaths for everyone 1,000 live births. Among the wealthiest families, rates fell 2.06 deaths per 1,000 births.

Eran Bendavid says that in countries with good governance, international aid can reach people who need it. But he found problems in corrupt³ or lawless nations. There, the number of child deaths increased during the same period.

“Now, if you have Boko Haram in northern Nigeria, if you have situations like you have now in Pakistan where aid workers are being vilified⁴ and attacked for providing vaccines⁵, you know, where you have a governance that really has no ability to provide the basic conditions for public  health to work, basic safety, the legitimacy⁶ for health workers to go and do what they need to do, then even those simple and basic and easy interventions⁷ can’t be accomplished⁸.”

The study noted⁹ a major improvement in the child death rate between rich and poor in several countries. They include Bangladesh, Bolivia, Ivory Coast, Egypt and Ghana.

The findings were reported in the journal Pediatrics.

Words in This Story

decrease – n. the act of becoming smaller or of making something smaller

simple – adj. easy to understand or do; not difficult or complex

narrow – v. to make something less wide

drop – n. the act of something falling

1 malarial   

患疟疾的，毒气的

参考例句：

• Malarial poison had sallowed his skin. 疟疾病毒使他皮肤成灰黄色。
• Standing water like this gives malarial mosquitoes the perfect place to breed. 像这样的死水给了传染疟疾的蚊子绝佳的繁殖地点。

2 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》

3 corrupt   

v.贿赂，收买；adj.腐败的，贪污的

参考例句：

• The newspaper alleged the mayor's corrupt practices.那家报纸断言市长有舞弊行为。
• This judge is corrupt.这个法官贪污。

4 vilified   

v.中伤，诽谤( vilify的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He was vilified in newspapers. 他在报纸上受到了诽谤。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She was vilified by the press for her controversial views. 因她持有异议，新闻界对她横加挞伐。 来自互联网

5 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。

6 legitimacy   

n.合法，正当

参考例句：

• The newspaper was directly challenging the government's legitimacy.报纸直接质疑政府的合法性。
• Managing from the top down,we operate with full legitimacy.我们进行由上而下的管理有充分的合法性。

7 interventions   

n.介入，干涉，干预( intervention的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Economic analysis of government interventions deserves detailed discussion. 政府对经济的干预应该给予充分的论述。 来自辞典例句
• The judge's frequent interventions made a mockery of justice. 法官的屡屡干预是对正义的践踏。 来自互联网

8 accomplished   

adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的

参考例句：

• Thanks to your help,we accomplished the task ahead of schedule.亏得你们帮忙,我们才提前完成了任务。
• Removal of excess heat is accomplished by means of a radiator.通过散热器完成多余热量的排出。

9 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。