VOA慢速英语 2008 0116a

This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

The single largest killer¹ of children under age five is pneumonia². This lung infection kills about two million children each year, mostly in developing countries.

 
A boy with pneumonia at a camp for earthquake survivors³ in Pakistani Kashmir in December 2005
In developed countries, most pneumonia cases are caused by viruses. But in the developing world, about sixty percent are caused by bacteria. These cases can be treated with antibiotic⁴ drugs.

The World Health Organization currently says children with severe pneumonia should be admitted to a hospital and given injectable antibiotics⁵. But many poor families do not have the money for a hospital or live too far away.

Now, new research could lead to a change in that advice. A study in Pakistan found that children with severe pneumonia can recover fully⁶ at home taking antibiotics by mouth. The study is in the Lancet medical journal.

The W.H.O. and the United States Agency for International Development paid for the study. It was done in five Pakistani cities by the School of Public Health at Boston University.

The research involved more than two thousand children between three and five years old. Half received intravenous antibiotics during a forty-eight-hour hospital stay. The others were sent home to take antibiotics for five days.

The treatment failed in eighty-seven children in the hospitalized group and seventy-seven in the home group. These children were then given another therapy.

During the study, five children died, four of them in the hospital group.

W.H.O. medical officer Shamim Qazi says the new findings will help children, families and hospitals. Children may get other infections in a hospital. Many hospitals are already overcrowded. And treatment at home would be less costly⁷.

The study confirmed the findings of three other studies in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America. These showed that in hospitals, oral antibiotics were just as effective as injectable antibiotics in treating severe pneumonia in children. 

A few cases are so severe they will still need hospital care. But Doctor Qazi says the W.H.O will be updating its guidelines this year with the new evidence.

Boston University professor Donald Thea led the research in Pakistan. Doctor Thea says a change could lead to new training for community health workers. If they learn how to treat severe pneumonia in young children locally, then more children are likely to survive.

And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver⁸. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Faith Lapidus.

 

1 killer   

n.杀人者，杀人犯，杀手，屠杀者

参考例句：

• Heart attacks have become Britain's No.1 killer disease.心脏病已成为英国的头号致命疾病。
• The bulk of the evidence points to him as her killer.大量证据证明是他杀死她的。

2 pneumonia   

n.肺炎

参考例句：

• Cage was struck with pneumonia in her youth.凯奇年轻时得过肺炎。
• Pneumonia carried him off last week.肺炎上星期夺去了他的生命。

3 survivors   

幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 幸存者在救生艇上漂流了六天。
• survivors clinging to a raft 紧紧抓住救生筏的幸存者

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 antibiotics   

n.（用作复数）抗生素；（用作单数）抗生物质的研究；抗生素，抗菌素( antibiotic的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• the discovery of antibiotics in the 20th century 20世纪抗生素的发现
• The doctor gave me a prescription for antibiotics. 医生给我开了抗生素。

6 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

7 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

8 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。