VOA标准英语10月-WHO Advocates Primary Health Care, Universal Cove

The World Health Organization is urging governments to adopt primary health care and universal coverage¹ as the best ways of improving health and saving lives. This year's World Health Report says primary health care can provide billions of people fairer access to health care. Lisa Schlein reports for VOA from WHO headquarters in Geneva.

This year's report commemorates² the 30th anniversary of the Alma-Ata Conference, which put primary health care on the international political agenda.

Primary health care offers a holistic³ approach. It operates at the community level, allowing people to have easier access to medical care.

The doctrine⁴ espoused⁵ in 1978 was aimed at improving health in deprived populations by tackling health problems at an early stage, before they got out of hand.

However, 30 years later, the promise of Alma-Ata has not been fulfilled. The World Health Organization reports differences in life expectancy⁶ between the richest and poorest countries now exceed 40 years.

An estimated 136 million women will give birth, this year. Yet, WHO says around 58 million of them will receive no medical assistance, endangering their lives and that of their infants.

WHO Assistant Director-General for Information, Evidence and Research Timothy Evans says the world's health picture during the past 30 years has been generally positive.

But, he tells VOA even more children's lives could have been saved had more countries embraced primary health care.

"If all countries had performed at the higher end, than that figure could have been three million deaths annually⁷ instead of nine million deaths, annually," Evans said. "So, we know that there is a tremendous amount more that needs to be done in order to reach health opportunities for all."

The report finds the amount of money governments spend every year on health varies widely from $20 to $6,000, per person. It says, for 5.6 billion people in low and middle income countries, more than half of all health care expenditure⁸ is through out-of-pocket payments.

It says more than 100 million people are pushed below the poverty line each year, by rising health care costs. Evans says universal coverage would ease this situation. It would give all people access to health care, regardless of their ability to pay.

"The evidence globally is very clear," Evans said. "In countries where you have to pay out of pocket when you access health care, people are much less likely to access health care at the right time. They tend to wait until it is too late, when either there is very little that can be done for them or what is done for them is extremely expensive and not often effective."

Evans says primary health care is best suited to deal with a whole host of new risks today associated with chronic⁹ illnesses.

"We are saying that those risks to ill health need to be aggressively addressed with the appropriate policies, in order to effectively prevent them from becoming major health problems," he said.

The World Health Organization says strong and committed leadership is often more important than money, in providing good health care. It says countries with poor resources - such as Sri Lanka, Kerala State in India, and Oman, which was poor in the 1970s - have greatly improved the health of their people by embracing primary health care and universal coverage.

1 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。

2 commemorates   

n.纪念，庆祝( commemorate的名词复数 )v.纪念，庆祝( commemorate的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• A tombstone is erected in memory of whoever it commemorates. 墓碑是为纪念它所纪念的人而建的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• A tablet commemorates his patriotic activities. 碑文铭记他的爱国行动。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

3 holistic   

adj.从整体着眼的，全面的

参考例句：

• There is a fundamental ambiguity in the use of word "whole" in recent holistic literature.在近代的整体主义著作中，“整体”这个词的用法极其含混。
• In so far as historicism is technological,its approach is not piecemeal,but "holistic".仅就历史决定论是一种技术而论，它的方法不是渐进的，而是“整体主义的”。

4 doctrine   

n.教义；主义；学说

参考例句：

• He was impelled to proclaim his doctrine.他不得不宣扬他的教义。
• The council met to consider changes to doctrine.宗教议会开会考虑更改教义。

5 espoused   

v.（决定）支持，拥护（目标、主张等）( espouse的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• They espoused the notion of equal opportunity for all in education. 他们赞同在教育方面人人机会均等的观念。
• The ideas she espoused were incomprehensible to me. 她所支持的意见令我难以理解。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 expectancy   

n.期望，预期，（根据概率统计求得）预期数额

参考例句：

• Japanese people have a very high life expectancy.日本人的平均寿命非常长。
• The atomosphere of tense expectancy sobered everyone.这种期望的紧张气氛使每个人变得严肃起来。

7 annually   

adv.一年一次，每年

参考例句：

• Many migratory birds visit this lake annually.许多候鸟每年到这个湖上作短期逗留。
• They celebrate their wedding anniversary annually.他们每年庆祝一番结婚纪念日。

8 expenditure   

n.(时间、劳力、金钱等)支出；使用，消耗

参考例句：

• The entry of all expenditure is necessary.有必要把一切开支入账。
• The monthly expenditure of our family is four hundred dollars altogether.我们一家的开销每月共计四百元。

9 chronic   

adj.(疾病)长期未愈的，慢性的；极坏的

参考例句：

• Famine differs from chronic malnutrition.饥荒不同于慢性营养不良。
• Chronic poisoning may lead to death from inanition.慢性中毒也可能由虚弱导致死亡。