VOA标准英语2018--更多资金用于抗击埃博拉

More Funds to Fight Ebola

On May 8th, health officials in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, or DRC, reported two confirmed cases of Ebola in the country's northwest. It is the DRC's ninth outbreak of the disease since the discovery of the virus near the country's Ebola River, and the second since the largest-ever Ebola epidemic¹ swept across West Africa from 2014 to 2015.

Ebola is a viral hemorrhagic fever with average mortality rates ranging from 25 to 90 percent, depending on the specific strain. According to the World Health Organization, by the end of December 2015, the epidemic that devastated² West Africa sickened 28,616 people and killed 11,310 across 10 countries.

Ebola is a disease of the thick forest, where people and wild animals exist in close proximity³. Here, people are more likely to eat bush-meat, or wild-caught game that may be infected with the disease. That is one of the reasons why Ebola is endemic in the DRC, meaning it is always present there at some level.

Since the earliest cases of this outbreak were reported in the DRC's forested region of Bikoro, they have spread to Mbandaka, a major port city. There is now a possibility that the infection could travel down the Congo River to more densely⁴ populated areas such as Kinshasa, the capital, with its population of 10 million.

On May 22nd, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar announced that the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, will contribute up to 7 million dollars at this stage to combat the Ebola outbreak in the DRC. This is in addition to the 1 million dollars USAID committed a few days earlier to help prevent the spread of this deadly disease.

The United States is also sending a team of public health experts to join the efforts of the Ministry⁵ of Health of the DRC, the World Health Organization, and other partners.

At the same time, we call on the global community to make funding available immediately to support the Government of the DRC and the World Health Organization's health emergencies fund - the "Contingency⁶ Fund for Emergencies" - in order to contain the outbreak as soon as possible before it spreads further and harms more people.

1 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。

2 devastated   

v.彻底破坏( devastate的过去式和过去分词)；摧毁；毁灭；在感情上（精神上、财务上等）压垮adj.毁坏的；极为震惊的

参考例句：

• The bomb devastated much of the old part of the city. 这颗炸弹炸毁了旧城的一大片地方。
• His family is absolutely devastated. 他的一家感到极为震惊。

3 proximity   

n.接近，邻近

参考例句：

• Marriages in proximity of blood are forbidden by the law.法律规定禁止近亲结婚。
• Their house is in close proximity to ours.他们的房子很接近我们的。

4 densely   

ad.密集地；浓厚地

参考例句：

• A grove of trees shadowed the house densely. 树丛把这幢房子遮蔽得很密实。
• We passed through miles of densely wooded country. 我们穿过好几英里茂密的林地。

5 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

6 contingency   

n.意外事件，可能性

参考例句：

• We should be prepared for any contingency.我们应该对任何应急情况有所准备。
• A fire in our warehouse was a contingency that we had not expected.库房的一场大火是我们始料未及的。