Health Report - Children of AIDS Face Mental Health Needs
健康报道 - 艾滋病家庭儿童面临严重心理健康问题
This is the VOA Special English Health Report.
这里是美国之音慢速英语健康报道。
Thirty years ago this week, public health officials in the United States reported on the first cases of what came to be known as AIDS. There is growing progress against the epidemic of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.
30年前的这一周，美国公共卫生官员报告了首例后来被称为艾滋病的病例。全球预防艾滋病蔓延的措施不断提升。
注：acquired immunodeficiency syndrome，获得性免疫缺陷综合症，简写AIDS，即艾滋病。
But today an estimated sixteen and a half million children have lost one or both parents to AIDS. Most of them live in sub-Saharan Africa. Millions more live with adults who are sick from AIDS.
但截至目前，预计有1650万儿童的父母其中一人或两人都死于艾滋病。他们大多数生活在沙哈拉以南非洲。超过数百万的儿童和感染艾滋病的大人一起生活。
Lucie Cluver from Oxford University in England has studied AIDS orphans and children living with sick adults in South Africa. She says children can be deeply affected by their experiences.
来自英国牛津大学的露西·克洛娃（Lucie Cluver）研究了南非的艾滋病孤儿，以及和感染艾滋病的大人一起生活的儿童。她表示，孩子们会被他们的经历深深影响。
LUCIE CLUVER: "And one of the biggest impacts we see is mental health, their psychological health. So, for example, we see that AIDS orphaned children have very much higher levels of depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder than children who have a live parent or children whose parents have died of other causes, including homicide or suicide.”
克洛娃：“我们发现对儿童的最大影响就是他们的心理健康状况。例如，我们发现艾滋病孤儿抑郁、焦虑和创伤后应激障碍的严重程度高于单亲儿童，也高于父母因杀人或自杀等其它原因去世的儿童。”
Lucie Cluver has just written about this problem in the journal Nature. She says children have to live with the stigma, the sense of shame connected to AIDS. Many are bullied at school or excluded from the community.
克洛娃刚在自然杂志上撰文谈到咋了这个问题。她表示，孩子们生活在艾滋病的耻辱之下，他们中的许多人在学校遭受欺负，或被社会排斥。
At home, children living with a sick adult are more likely to live in poverty and face physical and emotional abuse. Also, Lucie Cluver says the children often become the caregivers.
而在家庭里，孩子们和一个患艾滋病的大人一起生活，更容易陷入贫困中，面对身体和精神上的虐待。 此外，克洛娃说，儿童往往成为照顾家庭者。
LUCIE CLUVER: “They’re missing school to go and get medication. They’re washing the sick person. They’re often taking them to the toilet, cleaning their wounds or washing their bedclothes. So these kids find it very stressful and upsetting. They’re very worried about the health and feel responsible for the health of the sick person.”
克洛娃：“孩子们旷课去给大人拿药，给生病的大人清洗身体，还要带他们去厕所，清洗他们的伤口和床单。所以这些孩子感觉非常紧张不安，他们非常担心健康，并认为自己要对生病的大人的健康负责。”
Close contact with sick adults can sometimes spread tuberculosis or other diseases. And, as Lucie Cluver told reporter Art Chimes, even when the children are in school, paying attention can be difficult.
和染病的大人的密切接触有时会传播结核病或其他疾病。而且，正如克洛娃告诉记者Art Chimes的，即使孩子们在学校注意力也很难集中。
LUCIE CLUVER: "It’s constantly on their minds and really making it difficult for them to do well at school.”
REPORTER: "And the children are telling you this?"
LUCIE CLUVER: "Absolutely, it’s one of the things that they tell us first. It’s one of their greatest concerns."
克洛娃：“这些不断浮现在他们脑海，使得他们无法在学校表现更好。”
记者：“这是孩子们告诉你的？”
克洛娃：“当然，这是他最先告诉我们的事情之一，也是他们最大的顾虑之一。”
Her research suggests that psychological problems increase as AIDS orphans get older.
她的研究表明，随着艾滋病孤儿的长大，心理问题越发严重。
Writing in Nature, she calls for testing more children for tuberculosis. She also calls for giving more parents the drugs needed to keep them healthy longer with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
她在自然杂志上撰文呼吁给更多儿童做结核病检测。她还呼吁给更多的家长提供必要的艾滋病治疗药物。
There are programs to help children, but Lucie Cluver says there is "far more to be done." She says interventions such as cognitive behavioral therapy and support groups are "urgently needed" for those orphaned by AIDS or living with sick adults. But the evidence for which interventions are effective "is still thin," she says.
有一些项目在帮助这些儿童，但克洛娃表示这远远不够。她说，对艾滋病孤儿，以及和患病大人一起生活的儿童来说，认知行为治疗等干预措施和支持团体是“迫切需要”的。但哪种干预措施行之有效的证据尚不明显。
And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. I’m Barbara Klein. |