VOA标准英语2012--Pills Offer New Hope in Fight Against Yaws

Pills Offer New Hope in Fight Against Yaws

Scientists have found that a medicine taken in pill form is just as effective in treating the neglected tropical disease yaws as the usual treatment, a shot of penicillin¹.
The easier-to-use therapy raises new hope for the eradication² of the disease.
Yaws is a disease affecting mostly poor children in the tropics. It eats away at skin, cartilage, and bone, affecting an estimated half-million youngsters in Africa, Asia, and South America.
The standard treatment is penicillin, which can be very effective, and an international program nearly eradicated³ the disease in the 1950s and '60s. But in recent years yaws has reemerged, in part because many infected children don't show any symptoms, and so don't get penicillin.
"For every one case of active yaws that we see, the estimates are that there's up to eight cases of children infected with the yaws organism who don't present because they don't have symptoms at the time," says researcher Russell Hays, a physician at the remote Lihir Medical Center in Papua New Guinea. "And so for that reason, just treating active cases when they come up will never eliminate the disease."
Hays and his colleagues wanted to see if another antibiotic⁴ would work as well against yaws, one that would be easier to use in a mass-treatment program.
While penicillin is effective, it also has its downsides: it requires syringes and trained health workers to inject the drug, the needles must be properly disposed of to prevent possible transmission of other disease, and there is a risk of an allergic⁵ reaction.
In a study of about 250 children, half got penicillin injections, the others got azithromycin in pill form.
After six months, the results were similar for each group: nearly all children were cured in both groups, and no serious side effects were reported.
But Hays, whose research appears in The Lancet, says this alone isn't enough to switch to the azithromycin pills.
"From our point of view, we feel that the next logical step is to conduct a mass drug administration of azithromycin in a limited setting, and to then follow up that population and see if we can demonstrate that yaws can be eliminated from a particular location."
In a commentary, also in The Lancet, tropical disease expert David Mabey, of the London School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene⁶, agrees with the need for more research. But he also worries that the yaws bacteria might develop resistance to azithromycin.

1 penicillin   

n.青霉素，盘尼西林

参考例句：

• I should have asked him for a shot of penicillin.我应当让他给我打一针青霉素的。
• Penicillin was an extremely significant medical discovery.青霉素是极其重要的医学发现。

2 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。

3 eradicated   

画着根的

参考例句：

• Polio has been virtually eradicated in Brazil. 在巴西脊髓灰质炎实际上已经根除。
• The disease has been eradicated from the world. 这种疾病已在全世界得到根除。

4 antibiotic   

adj.抗菌的；n.抗生素

参考例句：

• The doctor said that I should take some antibiotic.医生说我应该服些用抗生素。
• Antibiotic can be used against infection.抗菌素可以用来防止感染。

5 allergic   

adj.过敏的，变态的

参考例句：

• Alice is allergic to the fur of cats.艾丽斯对猫的皮毛过敏。
• Many people are allergic to airborne pollutants such as pollen.许多人对空气传播的污染物过敏，比如花粉。

6 hygiene   

n.健康法，卫生学 （a.hygienic）

参考例句：

• Their course of study includes elementary hygiene and medical theory.他们的课程包括基础卫生学和医疗知识。
• He's going to give us a lecture on public hygiene.他要给我们作关于公共卫生方面的报告。