2007年VOA标准英语-WHO Says Progress Being Made in Controlling Mal

By Lisa Schlein
Geneva
23 April 2007

malaria1, in Manhica, Mozambique (File photo)" hspace="2" src="/upimg/allimg/070601/1000180.jpg" width="210" vspace="2" border="0" />

A young boy waits his turn to be tested for malaria, in Manhica, Mozambique (File photo)

The World Health Organization says its Roll Back Malaria program is making progress in cutting the number of deaths from this disease. Lisa Schlein reports for VOA from WHO headquarters in Geneva.

In many African countries, malaria is the single leading cause of death, with one child dying every 30 seconds. The World Health Organization reports one million people die from malaria every year, 90 percent in Africa. In addition, malaria costs the continent $12 billion in economic losses.

But, the World Health Organization says things are taking a turn for the better.

Executive Director of the WHO Roll Back Malaria Partnership², Awa Marie Coll-Seck, says the first few years of the program were not very successful, but lessons have been learned.

"All partners are proposing the same strategies and are supporting countries in the same way. It is why we are now more successful also at country level," said Coll-Seck. "And capacities of countries also are going better. The capacity building particularly with WHO is helping³ the countries. This is what I want to say, showing that things are moving in the direction, where we think that we can have results and successes are coming already."

Along with better coordination⁴, the availability of new tools for fighting malaria is having a huge impact on taming the disease.

The World Health Organization says increasingly ineffective malaria medicines have been replaced by a new generation of drugs known as "artemisinin-based combination therapy" that has revolutionized malaria treatment.

WHO Assistant Director General, Hiroki Nakatani, says the new control strategy also includes a more effective way of preventing people from being bitten by the malaria-causing mosquitoes.

"We have bed nets so that mosquitoes cannot bite the most vulnerable population, such as young children and pregnant women," said Nakatani. "And, now we have long-lasting insecticide bed nets, which can work for many years - three to five years. So, we would like to have universal access to such nets."

The World Health Organization also advises indoor spraying to control malaria. The Roll Back Malaria program has also helped increase global funding to fight the disease from about 60-million dollars in 1998 to one-billion dollars per year.

Thanks to support from the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis⁵ and Malaria, and other institutions, countries such as Rwanda, Tanzania, Ghana, Zambia and Zanzibar are successfully cutting child deaths from malaria.

1 malaria   

n.疟疾

参考例句：

• He had frequent attacks of malaria.他常患疟疾。
• Malaria is a kind of serious malady.疟疾是一种严重的疾病。

2 partnership   

n.合作关系，伙伴关系

参考例句：

• The company has gone into partnership with Swiss Bank Corporation.这家公司已经和瑞士银行公司建立合作关系。
• Martin has taken him into general partnership in his company.马丁已让他成为公司的普通合伙人。

3 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。

4 coordination   

n.协调，协作

参考例句：

• Gymnastics is a sport that requires a considerable level of coordination.体操是一项需要高协调性的运动。
• The perfect coordination of the dancers and singers added a rhythmic charm to the performance.舞蹈演员和歌手们配合得很好，使演出更具魅力。

5 tuberculosis   

n.结核病，肺结核

参考例句：

• People used to go to special health spring to recover from tuberculosis.人们常去温泉疗养胜地治疗肺结核。
• Tuberculosis is a curable disease.肺结核是一种可治愈的病。