UN to Launch Anti-Polio Campaign in India

Broadcast: Feb 05, 2003

 

U.N. agencies say they are getting ready to launch the largest-ever mass immunization campaign to fight an outbreak of polio in India. The agencies are planning to vaccinate¹ 165 million children.

Officials at the U.N. children's fund and the World Health Organization say a huge polio epidemic² is raging in the state of Uttar Pradesh in northern India.

A World Health Organization expert on ¹⁾vaccines³, Dr. Daniel Tarantola, says U.N. agencies and Indian authorities are moving quickly to vaccinate children in every house in Uttar Pradesh to try to prevent the further spread of polio. "The problem of this epidemic in Uttar Pradesh is that it not only affects the population in Uttar Pradesh," he said. "But it represents a threat as well to other states in India, some of which were able to get rid of ²⁾poliomyelitis, were free of poliomyelitis for several months and are now being re-infected with a sort of infection of cases from Uttar Pradesh. This would be the case of Gujarat and West Bengal, for example. And there is a worry about neighboring Bangladesh."

Dr. Tarantola says if 95 percent of Uttar Pradesh's children are vaccinated⁴, the polio ³⁾virus will be halted.

Carl Tintsman is a polio expert with the U.N. children's agency. He says if the anti-polio campaign is to be effective health workers have the daunting⁵ task of reaching millions of young people in a very short period of time. "The challenge of trying to reach all 165 million children one-by-one-by-one in a period of six days is huge," said Mr. Tintsman. "It has never, ever been done before. And part of the problem with our earlier rounds in India is while we did reach 95 percent or more of the children in most states of India, we did not succeed in doing that in all of Uttar Pradesh."

U.N. health officials say the success of the campaign in Uttar Pradesh will go a long way in determining whether a global initiative aimed at ⁴⁾eradicating polio worldwide by the year 2005 will succeed.

Dale Gavlak VOA news, Geneva.

 

1)    vaccines [vAk5siniE]n.[医]牛痘

2)    poliomyelitis [7pEuliEumaiE5laitis]n.小儿麻痹症, 急性骨髓灰白质炎

3)    virus[5vaiErEs]n.[微]病毒, 滤过性微生物, 毒害, 恶毒

4)    eradicate[i5rAdikeit]v.根除

1 vaccinate   

vt.给…接种疫苗；种牛痘

参考例句：

• Local health officials then can plan the best times to vaccinate people.这样，当地的卫生官员就可以安排最佳时间给人们接种疫苗。
• Doctors vaccinate us so that we do not catch smallpox.医生给我们打预防针使我们不会得天花。

2 epidemic   

n.流行病；盛行；adj.流行性的，流传极广的

参考例句：

• That kind of epidemic disease has long been stamped out.那种传染病早已绝迹。
• The authorities tried to localise the epidemic.当局试图把流行病限制在局部范围。

3 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。

4 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？

5 daunting   

adj.使人畏缩的

参考例句：

• They were faced with the daunting task of restoring the house.他们面临着修复房子的艰巨任务。
• Starting a new job can be a daunting prospect.开始一项新工作有时会让人望而却步。