DEVELOPMENT REPORT - Polio Campaign in Africa

DEVELOPMENT REPORT - Polio Campaign in Africa
By Karen Leggett

Broadcast: Monday, October 11, 2004

This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Development Report.

Health workers in West and Central Africa have been carrying out a campaign to protect eighty million children from polio. The vaccination¹ effort involves twenty-three countries. Organizers call it "the single-largest public health campaign in history."

The workers are going house to house. They want to make sure every child below the age of five is vaccinated². The first part of the campaign began Friday and continues through Tuesday.

 
Child receives oral polio vaccine³
The polio vaccine is taken by mouth. The first child to receive the drops of liquid was Zainab Ibrahim Shekaru. She is the one-year-old daughter of the governor of Kano state in Nigeria.

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo gave the baby the vaccine at a ceremony in Kano on October second. Other African leaders also attended. Mister Obasanjo directed all Nigerians to stay at home this past Saturday morning so children could be immunized.

Polio is caused by a virus. The virus is spread through body fluids and also water or food handled by an infected person. People who get the disease often lose the ability to move their arms or legs. Some die from polio. There is no cure. But polio can be prevented. To work best, the vaccine is given to children several times during their first few years of life.

Since two thousand three, there have been new cases in twelve African countries that had been free of polio. Polio began to spread in Africa last year after Kano and other states in northern Nigeria stopped immunization efforts. Islamic religious leaders had claimed that the vaccine was harmful. But the leaders have declared the current supplies to be safe.

The next National Immunization Days are set from November eighteenth to the twenty-second. Children will also have the chance to receive vitamin A, which is important for good health.

The campaign is led by the Global Polio Eradication⁴ Initiative⁵. This program includes the United Nations Children's Fund and the World Health Organization. Rotary⁶ International and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are also involved.

World health officials set a goal to end polio by two thousand five. The W.H.O. counted seven hundred fifty-four new cases in the world this year through the end of September. Three-fourths were in Nigeria.

This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Karen Leggett. This is Gwen Outen.

1 vaccination   

n.接种疫苗，种痘

参考例句：

• Vaccination is a preventive against smallpox.种痘是预防天花的方法。
• Doctors suggest getting a tetanus vaccination every ten years.医生建议每十年注射一次破伤风疫苗。

2 vaccinated   

[医]已接种的，种痘的，接种过疫菌的

参考例句：

• I was vaccinated against tetanus. 我接种了破伤风疫苗。
• Were you vaccinated against smallpox as a child? 你小时候打过天花疫苗吗？

3 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。

4 eradication   

n.根除

参考例句：

• The eradication of an established infestation is not easy. 根除昆虫蔓延是不容易的。
• This is often required for intelligent control and eradication. 这经常需要灵巧的控制与消除。

5 initiative   

n.主动性，首创精神，主动权（的行动），倡议

参考例句：

• He went to see the headmaster on his own initiative.他主动去看望校长。
• His employer had described him as lacking in initiative and drive.雇主说他缺乏进取心和干劲。

6 rotary   

adj.(运动等)旋转的；轮转的；转动的

参考例句：

• The central unit is a rotary drum.核心设备是一个旋转的滚筒。
• A rotary table helps to optimize the beam incidence angle.一张旋转的桌子有助于将光线影响之方式角最佳化。