VOA慢速英语2014 实验埃博拉病毒药物快速通道

 

AS IT IS 2014-10-19 Experimental Ebola Drugs Put on Fast Track 实验埃博拉病毒药物快速通道

Researchers are hurrying to develop effective treatments and vaccines² for Ebola. The disease has killed more than 4,500 people. Most of the victims lived in one of three West African countries: Guinea, Liberia or Sierra Leone.

In the United States, the government’s process for approving new drugs can often take years. But treatments for Ebola are moving quickly through the approval process.

Before US government officials approve a new drug, researchers must perform detailed³ scientific tests -- what are called clinical trials. The tests must be done on human beings to show that the experimental treatment is both safe and effective. 

These drug trials usually involve thousands of people and can take many years to complete. But there are exceptions.

Thomas Geisbert is a microbiologist at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. He says the US Food and Drug Administration can make an exception through what he calls its “animal rule.” This enables researchers to get faster approval when faced with a deadly disease like the Ebola virus.

Mr. Geisbert helped develop what is known as the VSV Ebola vaccine¹. This vaccine recently moved to human clinical trials at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Maryland. The tests involve 20 healthy volunteers.

Mr. Geisbert says that the “animal rule” requires only that scientists demonstrate that a treatment is effective in an animal model of human disease. This time, he says, the human model of disease was monkeys.

“And then in conjunction with that, you do a conventional phase one trial.  That’s just a study where you put a vaccine or treatment into a healthy human volunteer just to make sure that you know in normal healthy people that your vaccine or drug does not cause any disease or serious adverse⁴ event.”

Another experimental drug, called zMapp, went straight from the laboratory to Ebola patients. The Food and Drug Administration also bypassed human safety trials to treat a handful of patients in the United States.

Many researchers are hard at work to develop effective treatments and vaccines for Ebola. Canadian researchers made the VSV vaccine, which is now being tested in Maryland.

The British drug company GlaxoSmithKline has made another promising⁵, but experimental vaccine. The safety of that vaccine is currently being tested in Mali. The West African nation shares a border with Guinea, where the virus has infected many people. As of now, no Ebola cases have been reported in Mali.

Researchers say the promising vaccine will move into a more advanced human testing early next year. They will use these tests to show if the vaccine is safe for human use and if it is effective in preventing Ebola. 

Mike Levine is director of the Center for Vaccine Development at the University of Maryland’s School of Medicine. He is helping⁶ to direct human studies of the experimental vaccine in Mali.

Mr. Levine says the second part of testing will involve health care workers. He says protecting those closest to Ebola patients will help control the spread.

“If the vaccine is working in humans, like it worked in non-human primates⁷ (monkeys) then we may be able to greatly diminish transmission - maybe even interrupt transmission - in localized areas by immunizing contacts of known patients and doing a very good job of immunizing health care workers.”

Both vaccines proved to be 100 percent effective in protecting monkeys against infection with the Ebola virus. And they produced no side effects.

But as for Ebola treatments, Thomas Geisbert says that it is too early to know if what works in animals will also work in humans.

“I mean we don’t know if any of these vaccines is going to work in humans, quite honestly.”

Health officials hope to have early results of the VSV vaccine trials in Maryland by December. They plan to move to clinical safety trials in Africa shortly after that -- most likely in health care workers treating Ebola patients. Health care workers are at greatest risk of infection, say public health officials.

Mr. Geisbert says the vaccines, especially the VSV, not only have the potential to prevent Ebola. He says they also could treat the disease soon after a person is infected.

Words in this Story

clinical – adj.  relating to or based on work done with real patients

trial – n. one of a number of repetitions of an experiment

microbiology – n. a science that studies extremely small forms of life (such as bacteria and viruses). A microbiologist studies microbiology.

1 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。

2 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。

3 detailed   

adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的

参考例句：

• He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
• A detailed list of our publications is available on request.我们的出版物有一份详细的目录备索。

4 adverse   

adj.不利的；有害的；敌对的，不友好的

参考例句：

• He is adverse to going abroad.他反对出国。
• The improper use of medicine could lead to severe adverse reactions.用药不当会产生严重的不良反应。

5 promising   

adj.有希望的，有前途的

参考例句：

• The results of the experiments are very promising.实验的结果充满了希望。
• We're trying to bring along one or two promising young swimmers.我们正设法培养出一两名有前途的年轻游泳选手。

6 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

7 primates   

primate的复数

参考例句：

• Primates are alert, inquisitive animals. 灵长目动物是机灵、好奇的动物。
• Consciousness or cerebration has been said to have emerged in the evolution of higher primates. 据说意识或思考在较高级灵长类的进化中已出现。