VOA英语2010年-Intensive Care for Newborns is Good Investme

Premature¹ and low birth weight babies are surviving as never before, thanks to treatments available in neonatal intensive care units. That's mainly true in rich countries. But a new study suggests that these high-tech², high-intensity hospital services make economic sense in middle-income countries, too.

 

The often amazing results from neonatal intensive care comes at a hefty price in rich countries — doctor and hospital bills often climb into the tens of thousands of dollars, or more.

Medical care is cheaper in countries like Mexico, but people have less money, and there are many other competing medical needs.

So Joshua Salomon of the Harvard School of Public Health and his colleagues analyzed³ the costs and results of neonatal intensive care in Mexico. Using government data, they factored in the costs of medical care plus the costs of taking care of babies who survived with mental or physical disabilities against the value of longer life for babies who might not otherwise have survived.

Salomon says they concluded neonatal intensive care is a very good investment.

"Neonatal intensive care actually provides exceptionally high value for money when you tally⁴ up all of the short-term and long-term health gains against the relatively⁵ high cost of the intervention⁶ itself," he said in a telephone interview.

For example, infants born about 25 weeks after conception — about 15 weeks premature — typically lived 28 years longer by being placed in intensive care, at a cost of $1,200 for each year of healthy life gained.

Salomon says his research validates⁷ the cost-effectiveness of neonatal intensive care in countries economically similar to Mexico, but maybe not to very poor countries, where there may be more pressing needs for scarce medical resources.

"I think that our results, while they're based on data from Mexico, will generalize to an array of other middle-income countries. I would be more circumspect⁸ in trying to extrapolate to very low resource countries."

Harvard professor Joshua Salomon's research paper is published in the journal PloS Medicine, where he is a member of the editorial board.

1 premature   

adj.比预期时间早的；不成熟的，仓促的

参考例句：

• It is yet premature to predict the possible outcome of the dialogue.预言这次对话可能有什么结果为时尚早。
• The premature baby is doing well.那个早产的婴儿很健康。

2 high-tech   

adj.高科技的

参考例句：

• The economy is in the upswing which makes high-tech services in more demand too.经济在蓬勃发展，这就使对高科技服务的需求量也在加大。
• The quest of a cure for disease with high-tech has never ceased. 人们希望运用高科技治疗疾病的追求从未停止过。

3 analyzed   

v.分析( analyze的过去式和过去分词 )；分解；解释；对…进行心理分析

参考例句：

• The doctors analyzed the blood sample for anemia. 医生们分析了贫血的血样。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The young man did not analyze the process of his captivation and enrapturement, for love to him was a mystery and could not be analyzed. 这年轻人没有分析自己蛊惑著迷的过程，因为对他来说，爱是个不可分析的迷。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 tally   

n.计数器，记分，一致，测量；vt.计算，记录，使一致；vi.计算，记分，一致

参考例句：

• Don't forget to keep a careful tally of what you spend.别忘了仔细记下你的开支账目。
• The facts mentioned in the report tally to every detail.报告中所提到的事实都丝毫不差。

5 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。

6 intervention   

n.介入，干涉，干预

参考例句：

• The government's intervention in this dispute will not help.政府对这场争论的干预不会起作用。
• Many people felt he would be hostile to the idea of foreign intervention.许多人觉得他会反对外来干预。

7 validates   

v.证实( validate的第三人称单数 )；确证；使生效；使有法律效力

参考例句：

• Other research validates that when it comes to chocolate, type does matter. 其他的研究也证实了不同种类的巧克力确实功效不同。 来自互联网
• Trouble shoots equipment, review and validates data and complete reports. 管理错误描述设备，审查并确认试验数据，完成试验报告。 来自互联网

8 circumspect   

adj.慎重的，谨慎的

参考例句：

• She is very circumspect when dealing with strangers.她与陌生人打交道时十分谨慎。
• He was very circumspect in his financial affairs.他对于自己的财务十分细心。