VOA慢速英语2011--Efforts to Stop Polio Continue

SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Efforts to Stop Polio Continue

FAITH LAPIDUS: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus.
BOB DOUGHTY¹: And I'm Bob Doughty. On our program this week, we tell about efforts to defeat the disease polio.
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FAITH LAPIDUS: Poliomyelitis does not want to die. Sometimes the disease seems close to disappearing. Then new cases appear.
But American businessman and philanthropist Bill Gates continues to believe that wild polio can be stopped. Money from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has helped finance efforts against polio for more than twenty years.
The foundation recently announced winners of its Grand Challenges Explorations program. Some of the winners were honored for their work with polio, including studies aimed at leading to new vaccines³.
Each winner will receive a grant of one hundred thousand dollars. Entrants competing for the grants were urged to think “out of the box,” to develop ideas that are non-traditional. The goal is to speed the day when the international coalition⁴ to defeat polio has no more work to do.
BOB DOUGHTY: Some of the Grand Challenges Explorations money is for research that could improve vaccine² given to children in developing countries. The vaccine currently in use is swallowed. This oral vaccine contains a weakened version of the live poliovirus.
Changes in the live virus can cause paralysis⁵, an extremely rare event. The virus infects one in every two hundred fifty million children who receive the oral vaccine. But researchers are working to prevent this tragedy from happening.
FAITH LAPIDUS: In general, the worldwide campaign against polio has made huge progress in the past twenty years. Polio vaccines have decreased the number of recorded cases by ninety-nine percent since nineteen eighty-eight. That was when the cooperative effort called the Global Polio Eradication⁶ Initiative began.
A vaccine is very important because antibiotic⁷ drugs do not help after someone is infected. Antibiotics⁸ can kill only bacteria, not viruses. There is no cure for polio. Care includes rest, fluids and medicines to control symptoms like high body temperature.
The wild polio virus passes freely from person to person. It spreads through fluids in the mouth and nose, waste material and water systems. The very rare vaccine-derived, or vaccine-linked, polio strikes when changes in genetic⁹ material affect the vaccine.
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BOB DOUGHTY: Polio is mainly a children’s disease. But adults also get it. Many people are infected without knowing it. They may have only a higher than normal temperature and pain in the throat. But when polio attacks the central nervous system, the person may not be able to stand or walk. When the disease affects breathing, a patient can die.
Polio left an estimated three hundred fifty thousand patients with paralysis in nineteen eighty-eight. They lost the use of their arms or legs. Some no longer could breathe without help.
FAITH LAPIDUS: The Global Polio Eradication Initiative includes national governments and the United Nations Children’s Fund. Another partner is America’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Still another is the volunteer service group Rotary¹⁰ International. Rotary members have worked against polio for many years. The group also has organized programs to raise money for the anti-polio campaign. Violinist Itzhak Perlman and orchestra conductor James DePreist gave their most recent Concert to End Polio in Chicago, Illinois.
Both musicians have survived paralytic¹¹ polio. Mr. Perlman was four years old when the disease struck. Mr. DePreist was in his twenties. Today each man walks with the aid of crutches¹² or other devices.
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BOB DOUGHTY: Scientists say three polio viruses cause wild polio. Type one is the most dangerous. It can infect many people in a short time. Type one has caused about eighty-five percent of all polio cases. Type two wild polio disappeared worldwide in nineteen ninety-nine. Cases caused by type three poliovirus do not spread as fast as polio caused by type one.
Today, polio continues to strike in Nigeria, India, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Officials say several problems make it difficult for these nations to stop the spread of polio.
For example, five hundred thousand babies are born each month in parts of northern India. It is hard to reach and vaccinate¹³ all these children. Armed conflicts and other disputes in Pakistan and Afghanistan have interfered¹⁴ with -- or stopped -- anti-polio campaigns.
FAITH LAPIDUS: In two thousand three, Nigeria stopped providing vaccine against polio for almost a year. False reports about the vaccine caused the stoppage. The reports said the vaccine gave people the disease AIDS. Other reports said it prevented people from having children.
Nigeria had many cases of polio after the vaccinations¹⁵ ended. The disease also spread to other nations.
By August of two thousand seven, however, the polio news in the nation seemed hopeful. Nigeria had reported a major reduction in polio cases after January. Then unwelcome news came. Sixty-nine children in the northern part of the country developed paralytic polio.
BOB DOUGHTY: Some of the infected children had received the Sabin oral polio vaccine. The vaccine contains weakened poliovirus that protects well against type one poliovirus. But in Nigeria, some of the vaccine had made a harmful genetic change.
FAITH LAPIDUS: Critics have questioned the continued use of the Sabin oral polio vaccine in the international campaign against polio. They say its link to infection with the disease makes the vaccine unacceptable.
Nine years ago, American health officials stopped suggesting use of that vaccine. They said the reason was to end the possibility of paralytic polio linked to it.
Olen Kew is an expert in viruses for the Centers for Disease Control. Among his studies is the polio known as vaccine-associated-paralytic polio, or VAPP. He says the United States had about eight such cases a year before two thousand, when the oral polio vaccine was being used. About twenty percent of the cases were in children who had problems with their own natural defenses against disease.
BOB DOUGHTY: If there is any chance of a case of VAPP developing, why give Sabin oral polio vaccine? Experts say this vaccine works faster against the spread of type one polio. And it is not costly¹⁶. Health care workers who direct its use need little training.
Olen Kew notes that many developing countries use the vaccine because children can receive it without injection. The Sabin oral polio vaccine also protects the intestines¹⁷. That prevents the spread of the disease from person to person.
But the virus expert says, “There is always the risk that the weakened strains of the virus used in the vaccine will mutate into a form that can cause severe illness and even death.”
(MUSIC)
FAITH LAPIDUS: Jonas Salk developed the first major polio vaccine in the nineteen fifties. Albert Sabin then developed the Sabin oral polio vaccine in the nineteen sixties. Doctor Salk’s polio vaccine was injected. An improved version of the Salk vaccine is now used in the United States.
Poliovirus was first identified in nineteen eight, long before Doctors Salk and Sabin produced their vaccines. The earlier scientists, the discoverers, recognized the sickness. But they could not stop people from getting infected with it.
For example, polio killed six thousand people in the United States in nineteen sixteen. Twenty-seven thousand other Americans suffered permanent damage.
BOB DOUGHTY: For years, polio remained a frightening health threat. Many victims were children and young adults. Families tried all kinds of ways to protect their children.
A teacher living in the United States remembers wanting to go swimming as a child. But her mother always said, “It is too dangerous during the polio season.”
The mother was right. Hot summers were disastrous¹⁸. In the summer of nineteen fifty-two, more than fifty-seven thousand people were infected with polio in the United States alone. Although parents worked hard to protect their children, the disease kept spreading.
FAITH LAPIDUS: Some polio victims of those earlier days have lived to become well known in sports, medicine, the arts and other fields. Doctors say they often see such bravery and energy in patients who had polio. But researchers are working for the day when not one more person will ever suffer from the disease.
(MUSIC)
This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. June Simms was our producer. I'm Faith Lapidus.
BOB DOUGHTY:
And I'm Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America.

1 doughty   

adj.勇猛的，坚强的

参考例句：

• Most of successful men have the characteristics of contumacy and doughty.绝大多数成功人士都有共同的特质：脾气倔强，性格刚强。
• The doughty old man battled his illness with fierce determination.坚强的老人用巨大毅力与疾病作斗争。

2 vaccine   

n.牛痘苗，疫苗；adj.牛痘的，疫苗的

参考例句：

• The polio vaccine has saved millions of lives.脊髓灰质炎疫苗挽救了数以百万计的生命。
• She takes a vaccine against influenza every fall.她每年秋季接种流感疫苗。

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 coalition   

n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合

参考例句：

• The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
• Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。

5 paralysis   

n.麻痹(症)；瘫痪(症)

参考例句：

• The paralysis affects his right leg and he can only walk with difficulty.他右腿瘫痪步履维艰。
• The paralysis affects his right leg and he can only walk with difficulty.他右腿瘫痪步履维艰。

6 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。

7 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。

8 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。

9 genetic   

adj.遗传的，遗传学的

参考例句：

• It's very difficult to treat genetic diseases.遗传性疾病治疗起来很困难。
• Each daughter cell can receive a full complement of the genetic information.每个子细胞可以收到遗传信息的一个完全补偿物。

10 rotary   

adj.(运动等)旋转的；轮转的；转动的

参考例句：

• The central unit is a rotary drum.核心设备是一个旋转的滚筒。
• A rotary table helps to optimize the beam incidence angle.一张旋转的桌子有助于将光线影响之方式角最佳化。

11 paralytic   

adj. 瘫痪的 n. 瘫痪病人

参考例句：

• She was completely paralytic last night.她昨天晚上喝得酩酊大醉。
• She rose and hobbled to me on her paralytic legs and kissed me.她站起来，拖着她那麻痹的双腿一瘸一拐地走到我身边，吻了吻我。

12 crutches   

n.拐杖, 支柱 v.支撑

参考例句：

• After the accident I spent six months on crutches . 事故后我用了六个月的腋杖。
• When he broke his leg he had to walk on crutches. 他腿摔断了以后，不得不靠拐杖走路。

13 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。

14 interfered   

v.干预( interfere的过去式和过去分词 )；调停；妨碍；干涉

参考例句：

• Complete absorption in sports interfered with his studies. 专注于运动妨碍了他的学业。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I am not going to be interfered with. 我不想别人干扰我的事情。 来自《简明英汉词典》

15 vaccinations   

n.种痘，接种( vaccination的名词复数 )；牛痘疤

参考例句：

• Vaccinations ensure one against diseases. 接种疫苗可以预防疾病。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I read some publicity about vaccinations while waiting my turn at the doctor's. 在医生那儿候诊时，我读了一些关于接种疫苗的宣传。 来自《简明英汉词典》

16 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。

17 intestines   

n.肠( intestine的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Perhaps the most serious problems occur in the stomach and intestines. 最严重的问题或许出现在胃和肠里。 来自辞典例句
• The traps of carnivorous plants function a little like the stomachs and small intestines of animals. 食肉植物的捕蝇器起着动物的胃和小肠的作用。 来自辞典例句

18 disastrous   

adj.灾难性的，造成灾害的；极坏的，很糟的

参考例句：

• The heavy rainstorm caused a disastrous flood.暴雨成灾。
• Her investment had disastrous consequences.She lost everything she owned.她的投资结果很惨，血本无归。