VOA常速英语2008年-Researchers Want Disease Control in Hands of Af

By Ricci Shryock
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
29 April 2008

New research shows a community-controlled approach to fighting illness has doubled the malaria¹ coverage² for children in some African villages during the past three years. Ricci Shryock has more from Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

Nigerian Dr. Oladele Akogun says he originally had doubts about the community program, which gives residents medical supplies and allows community members to decide who will dispense³ those supplies and the best ways to approach diagnosis⁴ and treatment.

"I was surprised the communities could do anything," he said. "As a natural scientist, I just thought you needed science to do these things."

Dr. Akogun is Nigeria's Primary Investigator⁵ for The Special Program for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases. The program is sponsored by international organizations such as the World Bank and the World Health Organization.

At this week's International Conference on Primary Health Care Systems in Africa, held in Burkina Faso, researchers hope to convince policymakers of the effectiveness of their method so they can expand the approach across the continent.

"This is the realization⁶ that a community can outpace the achievements of a health facility located amongst, say 50 villages," said Dr. Akogun.

"With this approach, the local population nominated people from within the community to distribute donated drugs such as Coartem. Both Akogun and Geneva-based research coordinator⁷ Dr. Hans Remme say the key factor was community empowerment, and the duty and responsibility that those who were nominated felt," he added.

The project's communications manager Jamie Guth remembers one case she saw in Nigeria.

"I talked to a young man who had a wife and a baby, and he was able to treat not only his own son, who got malaria, but also other community members," she said.

Though Dr. Remme maintains the outlook is good for this type of treatment, he adds that the countries where this method worked are more developed than other some other African countries, and he hopes the approach will work in less stable areas, too.

"Within Africa, these are relatively⁸ well developed health systems, so to what extent this can be translated into areas where the health systems are much, much weaker, like in the Democratic Republic of Congo and in some parts of it, that is still a question, so we have to be careful," said Dr. Remme.

By releasing the findings at this week's conference, Dr. Remme says they hope to reach policymakers throughout Africa. More than 500 people from the health and international community are in Burkina Faso this week to participate in the WHO-sponsored conference.

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 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。

3 dispense   

vt.分配，分发；配(药)，发(药)；实施

参考例句：

• Let us dispense the food.咱们来分发这食物。
• The charity has been given a large sum of money to dispense as it sees fit.这个慈善机构获得一大笔钱，可自行适当分配。

4 diagnosis   

n.诊断，诊断结果，调查分析，判断

参考例句：

• His symptoms gave no obvious pointer to a possible diagnosis.他的症状无法作出明确的诊断。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做一次彻底的调查分析。

5 investigator   

n.研究者，调查者，审查者

参考例句：

• He was a special investigator for the FBI.他是联邦调查局的特别调查员。
• The investigator was able to deduce the crime and find the criminal.调查者能够推出犯罪过程并锁定罪犯。

6 realization   

n.实现；认识到，深刻了解

参考例句：

• We shall gladly lend every effort in our power toward its realization.我们将乐意为它的实现而竭尽全力。
• He came to the realization that he would never make a good teacher.他逐渐认识到自己永远不会成为好老师。

7 coordinator   

n.协调人

参考例句：

• The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, headed by the Emergency Relief Coordinator, coordinates all UN emergency relief. 联合国人道主义事务协调厅在紧急救济协调员领导下，负责协调联合国的所有紧急救济工作。
• How am I supposed to find the client-relations coordinator? 我怎么才能找到客户关系协调员的办公室？

8 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。