DEVELOPMENT REPORT - Campaign Against Tetanus

DEVELOPMENT REPORT
–
August 12, 2002: Campaign Against Tetanus

By Jill Moss¹

(Photo -UNICEF)
This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

The United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, has launched a new program to

protect thousands of women and their babies against tetanus. Organisms that enter
the body through a cut or wound cause the disease. It can lead to serious muscle
problems. Tetanus can also cause difficulty opening the mouth or swallowing.
Doctors call this condition lockjaw.

The UNICEF campaign will target women in poor communities in Africa that are
difficult to reach. Recently, health workers gave injections of vaccine² medicine to
more than one-hundred-thousand women in two areas of Mali. The vaccine will protect the women and their
newly born children from tetanus. Women at risk must receive at least three injections of the vaccine over a one year
period to be fully³ protected.

Health workers use a special device called a UniJect to give the vaccination⁴. This device includes a needle and
the amount of medicine needed for one patient. UNICEF says that people with little or no medical training can
successfully use the Uniject device. For example, teachers and community workers can be trained in areas where
there are no health centers. UNICEF says more people can by vaccinated⁵ in a short time by using temporary
health workers instead of medical experts.

Marc Vergara is a spokesperson for UNICEF. He says the Uniject device has been in use for about twelve years.
The tetanus vaccination has been used for about seventy years. And international campaigns to protect people
against disease have been carried out for many years. Mister Vergara says this is the first time all three have been
combined.

Mister Vergara says the UNICEF campaign will extend to other parts of Mali later this year. If it succeeds,
UNICEF and other aid organizations will plan similar campaigns in other countries. They include Ghana,
Somalia, Sudan, and Uganda.

UNICEF reports that tetanus killed two-hundred-thousand newly born babies and thirty-thousand women in fifty-
seven developing countries last year. Ninety percent of all tetanus cases are in twenty-seven countries in Africa,
the Middle East and South Asia. As many as seventy percent of all babies who develop the disease die in their
first months of life.

This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss.

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1 moss   

n.苔，藓，地衣

参考例句：

• Moss grows on a rock.苔藓生在石头上。
• He was found asleep on a pillow of leaves and moss.有人看见他枕着树叶和苔藓睡着了。

2 vaccine   

n.牛痘苗，疫苗；adj.牛痘的，疫苗的

参考例句：

• The polio vaccine has saved millions of lives.脊髓灰质炎疫苗挽救了数以百万计的生命。
• She takes a vaccine against influenza every fall.她每年秋季接种流感疫苗。

3 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

4 vaccination   

n.接种疫苗，种痘

参考例句：

• Vaccination is a preventive against smallpox.种痘是预防天花的方法。
• Doctors suggest getting a tetanus vaccination every ten years.医生建议每十年注射一次破伤风疫苗。

5 vaccinated   

[医]已接种的，种痘的，接种过疫菌的

参考例句：

• I was vaccinated against tetanus. 我接种了破伤风疫苗。
• Were you vaccinated against smallpox as a child? 你小时候打过天花疫苗吗？