VOA常速英语2014--184 Million Africans at Risk for Malaria 1.84亿非洲人面临疟疾风险（在线收听）

184 Million Africans at Risk for Malaria 1.84亿非洲人面临疟疾风险

New research shows that after 10 years of intensified campaigns against malaria 184-million people in Africa still live in moderate to high-risk areas. While the number is high, it’s down from nearly 220-million in 2000 when anti-malaria efforts began to increase.

研究发现，经过10年针对疟疾的大力运动，仍有1.84亿非洲人生活在中度到高度危险的地区。尽管这个数字很高，与2000年近2.2亿相比还是降低了，当时对抗疟疾的努力还刚刚开始加强。

The findings are based on thousands of community-based surveys in 44 African countries and territories. These are places where malaria has been endemic.

这些发现基于在44个非洲国家和地区里的社区调查，这些地区疟疾一直很流行。

Dr. Abdisalan Noor, co-leader of the team that conducted the research, said, “What we are looking at, first of all, is to try and estimate the level of infection with malaria in African communities. This doesn’t necessarily mean the number of people who die of malaria, but the proportion of people who are likely to carry the most virulent type of the malaria parasite. That’s Plasmodium falciparum.”

Abdisalan Noor博士是进行该项目的小组负责人之一，“我们的第一件事就是评估非洲社区疟疾感染的程度，并不一定是统计死于疟疾的人数，而是可能感染上最严重的疟疾寄生虫—镰状疟原虫的人口比例。”

Noor and co-leader Professor Robert Snow are with the Kenya Medical Research Institute-Wellcome Trust Research Program. The team also included researchers from Oxford University and the World Health Organization.

Noor和合作者罗伯特·斯诺博士都就从事肯尼亚医学研究院的威康信托基金会研究项目，该项目还包括来自牛津大学和世卫组织的研究者。

The study reflects the effects of the Roll Back Malaria campaign and other programs. The campaign brought together many multi-lateral, private and non-governmental organizations. The goal was to cut in half the number of deaths from malaria by 2010. It had a shaky start and was criticized in its early years for a lack of progress.

该研究也包含了遏制疟疾运动等项目的努力，该运动将许多多层次、私人和非政府组织都聚集起来。其目标是在2020年之前将疟疾死亡人数减半，项目一开始不稳定，最初几年因缺少进展而受到批评。

Dr. Noor said that the new study finds a mix of good and bad news about efforts to combat malaria.

Noor博士说新研究发现在对抗疟疾上的结果喜忧参半。

“The positive news is there has been production in 40 of the 44 African countries for which we were able to estimate change. There has been some reduction in the proportion of people who are likely to be affected with the falciparum parasite. About 218-million people in 2010 lived in areas where transmission – malaria transmission – had dropped by at least one level of endemicity. So that’s good news.”

“好消息是，我们估计44个非洲国家中有40个出现了变化，可能感染上镰状疟原虫的人口比例已经下降。2010年大约2.18亿人生活在疟疾感染率已经下降了一个层次地方性的地区，这是个好消息。”

Endemicity is described as the measure of disease prevalence in a region.

地方性是衡量一个地区疾病流行度的标准。

“The other side of it.” said Noor, “is that despite all these gains almost 60 percent of African populations still live in areas where more than 10-percent of the population is likely to carry the malaria parasite. And out of these about 184-million people live in areas where more than 50-percent of the population are likely to carry malaria infections.”

“另一方面，尽管取得这样的进步，有60%的非洲人口仍居住在这样的地区，即该地区10%以上的人可能携带疟疾寄生虫。其中约1.84亿人生活在这样的地区，即该地区一半以上的人可能感染疟疾。”

Among the countries where disease transmission remained high or unchanged are DRC, Uganda, Malawi and South Sudan.

疟疾传播率仍很高或不变的地区包括：刚果民主共和国、乌干达、马拉维和南苏丹。

Despite the large number of people still likely to be infected, Noor says he does not want to detract from the gains made by the international community – namely, the reduction in risk for 34-million people from 2000 to 2010.

尽管很多人仍可能被感染，Noor说他不想贬损国际社区取得的进步，即2000年到2010年有3400万人降低了感染风险。

“We haven’t actually looked at the reasons why some places are more resilient to change than others. Epidemiologically, it’s got something to do with the higher the starting transmission, the longer it takes to bring down the disease,” he said.

“我们还没研究与其他地方相比，有的地方更不容易改变。从流行病学的角度来看，一开始的传播率越高，就需要更久的时间来遏制这种疾病，可能是这个原因。”

Another reason, he said, may be weak health care systems in many countries. It can be difficult to get reliable estimates on how many people get sick or die from malaria. Noor says stronger health care systems would play a major role in reducing infection risk.

他说另一个原因可能是许多国家落后的医疗系统，很难就多少人生病或死于疟疾进行可靠的评估。Noor说较完善的医疗系统将在降低感染风险方面起到重大作用。

In the 10-year period studied, funding for malaria programs steadily increased from 100-million-dollars to two-billion dollars a year.

在这项为期10年的研究中，疟疾项目资金平稳增长，从每年1亿美元增加到20亿美元。

He said, “It’s no news that despite all this investment we need more. I think the estimate for the needs for malaria control in Africa is around five-billion dollars if we look at the last global malaria action plan.”

他说，“尽管有这么多投资，我们还需要更多，这并不是新闻。我想如果参考下上个全球疟疾行动计划，非洲的疟疾控制资金需求大概是50亿美元。”

Noor said that there’s a lot to be proud of in the global community in terms of reducing malaria cases.

Noor说就减少疟疾病例来说，国际社区很值得骄傲。

He added that despite a recent global recession -- and competing priorities -- resources for malaria campaigns should not only be sustained, but increased. That would help bring malaria to a point where, he said, it would be of “minimal public significance.” 

他说尽管最近发生全球衰退，但疟疾项目所需资金不仅需要维持，还应该增加。他说这将使得疟疾风险降低到“对公众产生最小影响”的程度。

Right now, though, the Roll Back Malaria campaign estimates a child dies every 60 seconds from the disease.

不过，遏制疟疾运动估计目前每60秒钟就有一名儿童死于疟疾。