VOA常速英语2007年-Health Officials Call for Increase in Bird Flu

By Naomi Martig
Hong Kong
17 December 2007

Experts with the World Health Organization are urging countries to step up surveillance of bird flu outbreaks in poultry¹. The announcement follows Pakistan's first human bird flu fatality² and Burma's first reported human case of bird flu. As Naomi Martig reports from VOA's Asia News Center in Hong Kong, concern is also growing that as colder weather sweeps through much of the northern hemisphere, so will cases of the potentially deadly virus.

 

The World Health Organization says the bird flu virus is likely to become more prevalent in the coming months, because just as people are prone³ to sickness in cold weather, so are birds.

Malik Peiris teaches microbiology at Hong Kong University. He was part of a team that in 2003 provided the first genetic⁴ map of the bird flu virus and its mutations. He says more temperate⁵ parts of the world will see increased transmission of the virus.

"And the reason for this may be the fact that the virus seems to survive for a long period of time in the cooler temperature, especially when it is moist and wet," Peiris said.

Bird flu has killed more than 200 people, mostly in Asia, since 2003. The two countries with the greatest number of human cases are Indonesia and Vietnam.

Hans Troedssan, spokesman for the World Health Organization's Beijing office, says the WHO is urging health workers to be alert, including those in countries where there have been few cases of bird flu.

"There is risk which we have seen in come countries, the risk of complacency particularly among the public and thinking that there is no danger anymore," Troedssan said.

Japan, Malaysia and Vietnam are among the countries that have been praised for efficiently⁶ dealing⁷ with bird flu outbreaks in poultry. But Troedssan warns that complacency is greatest in countries that have had the most success containing the virus.

The majority of people infected by bird flu contracted the virus from sick poultry. But there have been cases of human transmission. Peiris says experts are concerned the virus could mutate into a form easily passed between people.

"The most worrying thing is that if the virus does adapt to human transmission and causes a pandemic, the severity of human disease could be catastrophic," Peiris said. "It could be much worse even than the 1918 pandemic. And I think that is why we have to take it seriously."

The World Health Organization has sent medical teams to Pakistan to investigate the possibility of human-to-human transmission in the country's first human cases of bird flu. At least five of the eight people infected are from the same family.

1 poultry   

n.家禽，禽肉

参考例句：

• There is not much poultry in the shops. 商店里禽肉不太多。
• What do you feed the poultry on? 你们用什么饲料喂养家禽?

2 fatality   

n.不幸，灾祸，天命

参考例句：

• She struggle against fatality in vain.她徒然奋斗反抗宿命。
• He began to have a growing sense of fatality.他开始有一种越来越强烈的宿命感。

3 prone   

adj.(to)易于…的，很可能…的；俯卧的

参考例句：

• Some people are prone to jump to hasty conclusions.有些人往往作出轻率的结论。
• He is prone to lose his temper when people disagree with him.人家一不同意他的意见,他就发脾气。

4 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。

5 temperate   

adj.温和的，温带的，自我克制的，不过分的

参考例句：

• Asia extends across the frigid,temperate and tropical zones.亚洲地跨寒、温、热三带。
• Great Britain has a temperate climate.英国气候温和。

6 efficiently   

adv.高效率地，有能力地

参考例句：

• The worker oils the machine to operate it more efficiently.工人给机器上油以使机器运转更有效。
• Local authorities have to learn to allocate resources efficiently.地方政府必须学会有效地分配资源。

7 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。