VOA慢速英语 2007 0326a

This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

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Patients suffering from tuberculosis in Hyderabad, India

World Tuberculosis Day was March twenty-fourth. It was also the one hundred twenty-fifth anniversary of the discovery of the bacterium² that causes the lung disease. 

Tuberculosis is one of the world’s leading infectious³ diseases.  The World Health Organization says about two billion people around the world are infected with the bacterium that causes the disease. About one-point-six million people died from the lung disease in two thousand five. 

TB infection can remain inactive in a person’s lungs for years, or even a lifetime.  The disease, however, becomes active in about ten percent of all cases.  TB causes a high body temperature and coughing.  Infected people spread the disease by releasing particles from their mouths when they cough, sneeze, spit or talk. 

Most TB cases are in South and East Asia, Africa and West Pacific nations. The World Health Organization says about sixty percent of all cases are discovered and a majority of them are cured.

The health agency has a five-step program to guarantee that TB patients take their medicine correctly. The program is called Directly Observed Treatment, Short-Course, or DOTS.  Directly observed means that local health care workers watch to make sure patients take their medicine every day.  Full treatment usually lasts from six to nine months.

Some people, however, stop the DOTS program as soon as they feel better. That only makes the infection more difficult to treat.  TB continues and grows into drug-resistant forms when patients fail to finish taking their medicine.

The World Health Organization declared TB a public health emergency in nineteen ninety-three.  Since then, a new report shows worldwide tuberculosis rates are steady or falling.  The report says the percentage of the world’s population with the disease reached a high level in two thousand four, and remained steady in two thousand five.  If this continues for the next three to four years, WHO officials believe their Millennium⁴ Development Goal could be reached.

The goal is to discover at least seventy percent of infectious cases and successfully treat eighty-five percent of those cases by two thousand fifteen. 

And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss⁵. You can read and download audio of Special English programs at our web site, voaspecialenglish.com.  I’m Steve Ember. 

1 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。

2 bacterium   

n.(pl.)bacteria 细菌

参考例句：

• The bacterium possibly goes in the human body by the mouth.细菌可能通过口进入人体。
• A bacterium is identified as the cause for his duodenal ulcer.一种细菌被断定为造成他十二指肠溃疡的根源。

3 infectious   

adj.传染的，有传染性的，有感染力的

参考例句：

• Influenza is an infectious disease.流感是一种传染病。
• What an infectious laugh she has!她的笑声多么具有感染力啊！

4 millennium   

n.一千年，千禧年；太平盛世

参考例句：

• The whole world was counting down to the new millennium.全世界都在倒计时迎接新千年的到来。
• We waited as the clock ticked away the last few seconds of the old millennium.我们静候着时钟滴答走过千年的最后几秒钟。

5 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。