2007年VOA标准英语-Tuberculosis Remains a Global Threat

By David McAlary
Washington
30 May 2007
 

U.S. health officials have quarantined an airline passenger who may have exposed others to a potentially dangerous form of tuberculosis¹.  The unusual decision was made after the passenger took flights from the U.S. to Europe, then to Montreal, Canada before reentering the United States.  The man has what's called 'Extremely Drug Resistant²' tuberculosis.  Passengers and crew from both flights have been urged to be tested for the infection.  XDR-tb is an especially virulent³ form of the disease that is resistant to standard drug treatment.  Earlier this year, VOA's David McAlary examined the state of TB worldwide and XDR in particular.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis colonies

The World Health Organization says about nine million people around the world have TB and 1.6 million die from it every year. The greatest burden is in South and East Asia, followed closely by Africa and the Western Pacific regions, all adding up to 85 percent of the world total.

To the director of WHO's Stop-TB Program, Mario Raviglione, the deaths are needless, because a six-month course of drugs that have been around for decades can cure most cases of TB.

"It is a scandal that in 2007 with the means we have, we could potentially cure all drug-susceptible cases of TB, [but] we still see 1.6 million deaths every year, we still see 4500 deaths every day,” he says. “So the point here is, the world must wake up."

But TB persists and mutates into drug-resistant strains harder to cure because many patients fail to finish taking their medicine. The chief of TB research at the U.S. government's National Institute of Allergy⁵ and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Clifton Berry, says it is a lengthy⁶ regimen. "In places like Pakistan, and in places like India, and in places like Afghanistan, that's very, very difficult to do, just logistically keeping patients taking medicine for six months."

For years, the World Health Organization has promoted directly observed therapy by local health care workers who go to patients' homes to make sure they take their pills. But in poor countries with weak health systems, health workers to do this are in short supply.

As a result, bacterial⁷ resistance to at least two common TB drugs is spreading, requiring newer, more expensive, and more toxic⁸ compounds to do the job.

"One of the biggest challenges is we know it's out there, but we don't know how much of it is out there," says Joann Carter. She is with the non-governmental group RESULTS, which helps fund medical projects in developing countries. She notes that an even more dangerous TB strain has developed recently. The bacterium⁴ has mutated further into a form resistant to most of the older and newer drugs. This so-called extremely drug resistant strain, or XDR tuberculosis, was first noticed in South Africa, fueled by the HIV epidemic⁹ that weakens patients' ability to fight such diseases.

Carter calls it a scary superbug that kills 70 to 80 percent of those infected and threatens to reverse progress in treating AIDS. "What you've seen in parts of the world with high rates of HIV is that that drives up TB rates enormously. So when you put together multi-drug resistant TB or extremely drug resistant TB with HIV, it's really a potential explosion of a very deadly disease."

Carter estimates that XDR tuberculosis is still a small portion of the global TB burden.

But WHO official Raviglione warns that without strengthened health and surveillance programs in poor countries, more rapid diagnostic tools, and better, speedier drugs, it could spread. Raviglione says several new compounds are being developed that could shorten therapy by months, but they will not be available for at least three to five years.

The World Health Organization says controlling XDR TB will require an extra $650 million a year from the global community in addition to what it is already being spent.  WHO official Mario Raviglione explains. "XDR TB is probably the worst thing that one would ever have imagined. I've been working now in TB control for the last 15, 16 years and I can tell you that this is by far the biggest scare we have ever faced."

Lung specialist Lee Reichman of the New Jersey¹⁰ Medical School's Global Tuberculosis Institute argues that new drugs and diagnostic tools will fail if poor countries' health systems are not bolstered¹¹ to deliver them efficiently¹². But Reichman says XDR TB is curable with political will and novel thinking. "You have to be ready to think of new things in tuberculosis because what we're doing so far hasn't worked that well."

1 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。

2 resistant   

adj.(to)抵抗的，有抵抗力的

参考例句：

• Many pests are resistant to the insecticide.许多害虫对这种杀虫剂有抵抗力。
• They imposed their government by force on the resistant population.他们以武力把自己的统治强加在持反抗态度的人民头上。

3 virulent   

adj.有毒的，有恶意的，充满敌意的

参考例句：

• She is very virulent about her former employer.她对她过去的老板恨之入骨。
• I stood up for her despite the virulent criticism.尽管她遭到恶毒的批评，我还是维护她。

4 bacterium   

n.(pl.)bacteria 细菌

参考例句：

• The bacterium possibly goes in the human body by the mouth.细菌可能通过口进入人体。
• A bacterium is identified as the cause for his duodenal ulcer.一种细菌被断定为造成他十二指肠溃疡的根源。

5 allergy   

n.(因食物、药物等而引起的)过敏症

参考例句：

• He developed an allergy to pollen.他对花粉过敏。
• The patient had an allergy to penicillin.该患者对青霉素过敏。

6 lengthy   

adj.漫长的，冗长的

参考例句：

• We devoted a lengthy and full discussion to this topic.我们对这个题目进行了长时间的充分讨论。
• The professor wrote a lengthy book on Napoleon.教授写了一部有关拿破仑的巨著。

7 bacterial   

a.细菌的

参考例句：

• Bacterial reproduction is accelerated in weightless space. 在失重的空间，细菌繁殖加快了。
• Brain lesions can be caused by bacterial infections. 大脑损伤可能由细菌感染引起。

8 toxic   

adj.有毒的，因中毒引起的

参考例句：

• The factory had accidentally released a quantity of toxic waste into the sea.这家工厂意外泄漏大量有毒废物到海中。
• There is a risk that toxic chemicals might be blasted into the atmosphere.爆炸后有毒化学物质可能会进入大气层。

9 epidemic   

n.流行病；盛行；adj.流行性的，流传极广的

参考例句：

• That kind of epidemic disease has long been stamped out.那种传染病早已绝迹。
• The authorities tried to localise the epidemic.当局试图把流行病限制在局部范围。

10 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

11 bolstered   

v.支持( bolster的过去式和过去分词 )；支撑；给予必要的支持；援助

参考例句：

• He bolstered his plea with new evidence. 他举出新的证据来支持他的抗辩。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• The data must be bolstered by inferences and indirect estimates of varying degrees of reliability. 这些资料必须借助于推理及可靠程度不同的间接估计。 来自辞典例句

12 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。