VOA标准英语2014--MDR-TB May Succumb to Shorter Treatment

 

MDR-TB May Succumb¹ to Shorter Treatment

There’s encouraging news about treating multi-drug resistant² tuberculosis³, which killed about 210-thousand people last year. Preliminary data indicate a shorter, less painful treatment regimen is just as effective as current treatment that lasts one to two years. The findings were released at the 45th World Conference on Lung Health in Barcelona, Spain.

The World Health Organization estimates there were nearly a half-million MDR-TB cases in 2013. TB is considered multi-drug resistant if it’s not affected⁴ by two of the top drugs typically used to treat the disease.

I.D. Rusen is senior vice⁵ president for research and development for the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, or The Union for short. He said the number of cases does not tell the whole story.

“Very few of those cases are actually put onto treatment. So, maybe only 20-percent of the cases that are thought to occur actually get treated. And then the situation is even worse because of those who are treated only about half of them – or just under half of them – are treated successfully.”

He blamed the high rate of unsuccessful treatment on – what he calls—the “horrible” ordeal⁶ faced by MDR-TB patients.

“The treatment that’s available today is long. It’s grueling. It’s toxic⁷. It’s really not an overstatement or an exaggeration. People are being treated for 18, at minimum, up to 24 months when they have multi-drug resistant tuberculosis. And included in that is for the first period of treatment daily – and then almost daily – injections. The injections are painful. And one of the major side effects of the injections is deafness, which can be permanent,” he said.

Patients are likely to quit treatment long before the prescribed length. However, preliminary data from two new studies show that type of treatment may become a thing of the past. Rusen described how the research began.

“This announcement stems from a pilot project that was done in Bangladesh. It really started several years ago where a shorter regimen of only nine months duration was used that showed really promising⁸ results – much better than what we see actually in the standard 24-month regimen.  So what The Union has been trying to do is implement⁹ further studies to see if that really can be replicated¹⁰ elsewhere.”

That further research includes early data released at the Barcelona conference. The findings come from an observational cohort study conducted by The Union of one-thousand patients in nine West African countries.

The Union is trying to confirm those results with a study of one-thousand MDR-TB patients in West Africa.

Rusen said, “The other point that The Union is doing – it’s sort of a parallel approach – we’re undertaking¹¹ a clinical trial, which is called STREAM, which is comparing this shortened regimen head-to-head with the standard 24-month regimen.”

For the STREAM study, The Union is collaborating¹² with Treat TB Partner and the UK’s Medical Research Council.

The other study showing similar results for shorter treatment is being done by the Damien Foundation in Niger. Damien is the same group that conducted the pilot project in Bangladesh.

Rusen explained how nine-months of less painful treatment can be as effective – or more effective – than the one to two year program.

“It’s not the same drugs that are being used. But, interestingly, the nine-month regimen uses drugs primarily that have been around already. It’s using drugs that in some cases people were not convinced that they would work for tuberculosis or they weren’t people’s first choice. But they’re drugs that are generally less toxic or less difficult to take.  [It’s a] tolerable regimen that people would be more likely to stick around and complete -- than necessarily the strongest medicine out there that might be too difficult to continue treatment with,” he said.

The nine month program also has daily injections, but Rusen said they would probably end after a few months. The goal is to introduce a regimen that has no injections.

He said if studies do confirm the preliminary results, the treatment success rate could rise from 50-percent to 80 or 90-percent.  

1 succumb   

v.屈服，屈从；死

参考例句：

• They will never succumb to the enemies.他们决不向敌人屈服。
• Will business leaders succumb to these ideas?商业领袖们会被这些观点折服吗？

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 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。

4 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

5 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

6 ordeal   

n.苦难经历，（尤指对品格、耐力的）严峻考验

参考例句：

• She managed to keep her sanity throughout the ordeal.在那场磨难中她始终保持神志正常。
• Being lost in the wilderness for a week was an ordeal for me.在荒野里迷路一星期对我来说真是一场磨难。

7 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。

8 promising   

adj.有希望的，有前途的

参考例句：

• The results of the experiments are very promising.实验的结果充满了希望。
• We're trying to bring along one or two promising young swimmers.我们正设法培养出一两名有前途的年轻游泳选手。

9 implement   

n.(pl.)工具，器具；vt.实行，实施，执行

参考例句：

• Don't undertake a project unless you can implement it.不要承担一项计划，除非你能完成这项计划。
• The best implement for digging a garden is a spade.在花园里挖土的最好工具是铁锹。

10 replicated   

复制( replicate的过去式和过去分词 )； 重复； 再造； 再生

参考例句：

• Later outplant the seedlings in a replicated permanent test plantation. 以后苗木出圃栽植成重复的永久性试验林。
• The phage has replicated and the donor cells have lysed. 噬菌体已复制和给体细胞已发生裂解。

11 undertaking   

n.保证，许诺，事业

参考例句：

• He gave her an undertaking that he would pay the money back with in a year.他向她做了一年内还钱的保证。
• He is too timid to venture upon an undertaking.他太胆小，不敢从事任何事业。

12 collaborating   

合作( collaborate的现在分词 )； 勾结叛国

参考例句：

• Joe is collaborating on the work with a friend. 乔正与一位朋友合作做那件工作。
• He was not only learning from but also collaborating with Joseph Thomson. 他不仅是在跟约瑟福？汤姆逊学习，而且也是在和他合作。