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It's a drag, day after day for Michael Harwood, 41 years of smoking cigarettes.
It's time I need to stop. They're gonna kill me young if I don't.
Right now he puffs a pack and a half a day. At his peak, it was about 4 packs a day while drinking alcohol. By his own account, he's tried to quit 10 times; his longest streak without a smoke is 3 days.
Inside I don't feel well. My lungs have been bothering me. I get bronchitis quite a bit.
That's why he is here at the University of Wisconsin Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention. Howard is participating in a nicotine vaccine study. Doctor Douglas Jorenby is leading the research on the new vaccine called NicVax.
Rather than working on pathways in the brain, it's keeping nicotine from getting there in the first place. And the thought is that that may make it easier for people to quit smoking if they are not experiencing the,the pleasurable effects of it.
Harwood is getting his first shot. Over the period of a year, he will get 4 or 5 injections and keep track of his vital signs daily with an electronic diary. The vaccine is not approved by the FDA. But Doctor Jorenby is looking forward to the results of the study.
The preliminary data we have is that it's gonna be a good way to quit smoking. I don't think we're ever gonna find a magic bullet.
The study will enroll 300 people around the country including 30 right here at the University of Wisconsin. 2/3 of the smokers in the study will get the vaccine and the other 1/3 will receive a placebo shot. Neither Harwood or the Doctors will know what shot he's getting until the end of the study. He hopes NicVax is the key to unlocking his nicotine addiction since less than 10% of smokers successfully quit.
Mark Carlson, Associated Press, Madison, Wisconsin.
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puff:to smoke a cigarette,pipe,etc. 吸烟
bronchitis:an illness affecting your bronchial tubes in which you cough and find breathing difficult 支气管炎
vital sign:usually an indicator of a person's general physical condition 生命体征
magic bullet:A remedy that cures or prevents a disease 治疗方法
placebo:a substance that is not medicine but that a patient who is taking it believes is medicine,so they get better 安慰剂
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