VOA常速英语2020--击败镰状细胞病指日可待（在线收听）

Next, an editorial reflecting the views of the United States government.

以下是一篇反映美国政府政策立场的社论。

Sickle Cell Disease is an inherited condition that, if left untreated, kills 80 percent of children born with it before they reach their fifth birthday. In sub-Saharan Africa, where 75 percent of cases occur, every year about 300,000 infants are born with the disease. Taking advantage of decades of experience that comes from battling Sickle Cell Disease among its own population of African Americans, the United States is partnering with countries in sub-Saharan Africa that have the largest number of people suffering from the disease. “There are a couple of approaches we can use,” said Brett Giroir, a pediatric doctor and Admiral in the United States Public Health Service who currently serves as the assistant secretary for health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. “We could mitigate the effects of the disease. We could treat people like we treat all other conditions. And we could do that very simply if we give penicillin and vaccines. We know we can get children who die before age five up into their 20s with nothing else and probably into their 30s or 40s. If we treat with hydroxyurea…there's no reason that people can't live to their 40s and 50s.”

镰状细胞病是一种遗传性疾病，如果不加以治疗，80%的先天性镰状细胞病患病儿童会在5岁之前死亡。有75%的镰状细胞病病例出现在撒哈拉以南的非洲地区，那里每年大约有30万婴儿生来就患有这种疾病。美国正在利用非裔美国人抗击镰状细胞病的数十年经验，与此类病患最多的撒哈拉以南的非洲国家结成伙伴关系。“我们能够采用多种办法。”目前担任美国卫生及公共服务部助理部长兼美国公共卫生服务军官团上将的儿科医师布雷特·吉罗伊尔表示。“我们可以减缓镰状细胞病的影响。我们可以像治疗其他疾病一样去治疗患者。如果我们使用青霉素和疫苗治疗，就能很简单地做到这一点。我们知道我们能够让那些活不到五岁的儿童们活到20多岁，甚至可能活到30多岁或40多岁。如果我们用羟基脲治疗，那些患者们就没有理由活不到40多岁和50多岁。”

Now we can also take advantage of treatments that deal with a genetic defect in the blood. That’s important, because a human being replaces his or her red blood cells every 90 days. “You could correct the gene defect in the bone marrow and all of a sudden people with sickle cell will start pumping out normal cells. That is not science fiction; that's being done in clinical trials right here in the United States. It has a potential for being scalable to hundreds of thousands or millions of people.” Admiral Giroir believes that within ten years, we could see relatively inexpensive, accessible treatment that would enable people with Sickle Cell Disease everywhere to lead normal lives. “There has never been a time in history that there's been so much activity and excitement about helping people with sickle cell disease,” he said. “There's never been this opportunity and we want to seize it. And the time is really right. Just think about that. Nine million children by 2050 that we can save have them have happy, safe, productive lives for their countries, for them to raise families on their own.”

现在我们也可以利用治疗血液中的基因缺陷的方法。这很重要，因为人类的红血球每90天就更换一次。“你可以更正骨髓中的基因缺陷，镰状细胞病的患者会突然开始生出正常细胞。这不是科幻小说；这是美国当前正在进行的临床试验。它有可能把规模扩大到数十万人或数百万人。”吉罗伊尔上将相信，十年之内，我们就能看到相对便宜和容易获取的治疗方法出现，世界各地的镰状细胞病患者都能由此过上正常的生活。他说：“在帮助镰状细胞病患者方面，历史上从未有过如此多的活动和激情。”“过去从未出现过这样的机会，我们想要抓住它。而且恰逢其时。想想看。到2050年，我们能够拯救900万儿童，让他们在自己的国家过上幸福、安全和富有成效的生活，他们能够自食其力、养家糊口。”

That was an editorial reflecting the views of the United States government.

这是一篇反映美国政府政策立场的社论。