Polio1

 

Broadcast: January 14, 2003
By Jill Moss¹

VOICE ONE:

This is Phoebe Zimmerman.

VOICE TWO:

And this is Bob Doughty² with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about the deadly disease polio and efforts to end it around the world.

VOICE ONE:

People do not usually celebrate a disease. But recently, in the northern Nigerian village of Rogo, men and women gathered for a special ceremony. The celebration launched National Immunization Days in Nigeria. This is a government-organized campaign to give polio vaccine³ medicine to more than forty-million Nigerian children under age five. The message of the men and women singing at the event is simple: Parents, give your children the polio vaccine medicine. If you do not, you hurt yourselves and them.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Efforts to end polio around the world started in nineteen-eighty-eight. At that time, four international aid groups launched a campaign to end polio by two-thousand-five. The groups are the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children's Fund, the private group Rotary⁴ International and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The campaign is called the Global Polio Eradication⁵ Initiative.

It has been very successful. Over the past fourteen years, the number of new polio infections around the world has dropped by more than ninety-nine percent.

VOICE ONE:

When the campaign first started, more than three-hundred-fifty-thousand new cases of polio were reported. In two-thousand-one, however, there were just four-hundred-eighty-three new cases. The disease used to infect people in one-hundred-twenty-five countries. Now it is found in fewer than ten countries. Most of these remaining cases are in parts of the world where getting the polio vaccine to children has been difficult.

India, Pakistan and Nigeria currently have the most new cases of polio. These nations share conditions that support the spread of the disease. They include low rates of vaccination⁶, unclean living conditions, weak public health systems, and large crowded populations. Nigeria, for example, has the largest population in Africa - more than one-hundred-twenty-million people.

VOICE TWO:

This is why the Nigerian government holds National Immunization2 Days several times a year. During these special campaigns, trained health workers bring the polio vaccine to children in every house in every village throughout the country.

In some countries, medical teams find it difficult to vaccinate⁷ children against polio. This is because communities are far from cities, or in areas where travel is difficult. Conflicts are also a problem in some countries. Sometimes travel is not permitted or areas are too dangerous to enter. These workers in Nigeria, however, were lucky. They were able to bring the polio vaccine to all the country's villages.

(MUSIC BRIDGE)

VOICE ONE:

Polio is an infectious disease caused by a virus. It can affect people at any age. However, it usually affects children under age three. The virus enters through the mouth and then grows inside the throat and intestines⁸.

It can spread quickly through communities in drinking water infected with human waste. It can also be passed through human touch, such as kissing an infected person.

Signs of polio include a high temperature, stomach sickness, and pain in the head and neck. Once the poliovirus becomes established in the intestines, it can spread to the blood and nervous system. When this happens, victims can become paralyzed3. They lose the ability to move. This paralysis⁹ is almost always permanent. In very serious cases, the paralysis can lead to death because victims are not able to breathe.

VOICE TWO:

Stephen Cochi (CO-chee) heads international vaccination efforts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States. He says that one in two-hundred polio-infected children in high-risk populations will become permanently¹⁰ paralyzed. The other children will become carriers of the virus and may spread the disease to other people.

There is no cure for polio, so the best treatment is prevention. A few drops of a powerful vaccine medicine will protect a child for life. The vaccine must be given four times over several years to be fully¹¹ effective.

VOICE ONE:

The effects of polio can revisit some victims later in life. This is called post-polio syndrome¹², or P-P-S. This condition affects polio survivors¹³ about thirty-five years after their first polio attack. Currently, there are about twenty-million polio survivors around the world. Signs of the condition include muscle weakness, pain in the head, neck and back, tiredness, and trouble sleeping, breathing and swallowing. There is no cure for P-P-S. However, rest and less physical activity can help treat the condition.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

During the nineteen-fifties, American scientists Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin developed medicines that prevented polio. Before these first vaccines¹⁴ were discovered, thousands of children got the disease every year. Today, however, vaccine medicine has made polio rare. In the United States, the vaccine is injected into the body. However, in developing countries, the vaccine is usually given by drops in the mouth. This method is more effective for developing countries because so many children need to be treated. Some young people, like this one in Nigeria, do not like taking the medicine.

(SOUNDS: CHILD CRYING)

VOICE ONE:

Health officials hope to halt the spread of polio in Nigeria. The World Health Organization will declare the country polio-free after three years of no new cases. This depends on the success of the government's vaccination campaign. Over the past four years, more than two-hundred-thousand people have taken part in National Immunization Days in Nigeria. These trained health workers usually work in teams of two people.

The teams bring the vaccine to children in villages. They also look for signs of possible new cases. This kind of work permits medical experts to study the virus and its development. Any information about new polio cases is sent to an important health laboratory in Africa. It is part of a special system of more than one-hundred similar laboratories around the world.

VOICE TWO:

This system of laboratories is the most complete for any disease. Health officials use the system to examine the genetic¹⁵ form of the polio virus and study how it spreads through populations. This information helps health workers give polio vaccines to children who live in the exact area where the disease started.

Officials say the campaign to end polio by two-thousand-five has been very successful. However, some problems have developed. One problem is finding well-trained people to give the vaccines and investigate individual polio cases as they develop. The international laboratory system has eased this problem. Officials say it has helped build closer ties between public officials and health workers around the world.

(MUSIC BRIDGE)

VOICE ONE:

Since the polio campaign began fourteen years ago, two-thousand-million children in ninety-four countries have been vaccinated¹⁶. In two-thousand-one alone, the vaccine was given to five-hundred-seventy-five-million children. The World Health Organization estimates the international polio campaign will cost about three-thousand-million dollars during the next three years. Currently, plans to gain about two-hundred-seventy-five-million dollars of that amount are moving forward. Support has come from governments, international agencies and many private aid groups, such as Rotary International. This organization has given more money than any other private group.

Rotary International has given almost five-hundred-million dollars. It has promised to raise about eighty-million dollars by the end of this year. This is a lot of money. However, Rotary International says that no price is too high to pay to end polio on Earth.

VOICE TWO:

This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Jill Moss. It was produced by George Grow. This is Bob Doughty.

VOICE ONE:

And this is Phoebe Zimmerman. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America.
1. polio [5pEJlIEJ] n. 脊髓灰质炎；小儿麻痹症
2. immunization [7Imju:naI5zeIFEn] n. 使免除, 使免疫
3. paralyze [5pArElaIz] vt. 使瘫痪, 使麻痹

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 doughty   

adj.勇猛的，坚强的

参考例句：

• Most of successful men have the characteristics of contumacy and doughty.绝大多数成功人士都有共同的特质：脾气倔强，性格刚强。
• The doughty old man battled his illness with fierce determination.坚强的老人用巨大毅力与疾病作斗争。

3 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。

4 rotary   

adj.(运动等)旋转的；轮转的；转动的

参考例句：

• The central unit is a rotary drum.核心设备是一个旋转的滚筒。
• A rotary table helps to optimize the beam incidence angle.一张旋转的桌子有助于将光线影响之方式角最佳化。

5 eradication   

n.根除

参考例句：

• The eradication of an established infestation is not easy. 根除昆虫蔓延是不容易的。
• This is often required for intelligent control and eradication. 这经常需要灵巧的控制与消除。

6 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。

7 vaccinate   

vt.给…接种疫苗；种牛痘

参考例句：

• Local health officials then can plan the best times to vaccinate people.这样，当地的卫生官员就可以安排最佳时间给人们接种疫苗。
• Doctors vaccinate us so that we do not catch smallpox.医生给我们打预防针使我们不会得天花。

8 intestines   

n.肠( intestine的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Perhaps the most serious problems occur in the stomach and intestines. 最严重的问题或许出现在胃和肠里。 来自辞典例句
• The traps of carnivorous plants function a little like the stomachs and small intestines of animals. 食肉植物的捕蝇器起着动物的胃和小肠的作用。 来自辞典例句

9 paralysis   

n.麻痹(症)；瘫痪(症)

参考例句：

• The paralysis affects his right leg and he can only walk with difficulty.他右腿瘫痪步履维艰。
• The paralysis affects his right leg and he can only walk with difficulty.他右腿瘫痪步履维艰。

10 permanently   

adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地

参考例句：

• The accident left him permanently scarred.那次事故给他留下了永久的伤疤。
• The ship is now permanently moored on the Thames in London.该船现在永久地停泊在伦敦泰晤士河边。

11 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。

12 syndrome   

n.综合病症；并存特性

参考例句：

• The Institute says that an unidentified virus is to blame for the syndrome. 该研究所表示,引起这种综合症的是一种尚未确认的病毒。
• Results indicated that 11 fetuses had Down syndrome. 结果表明有11个胎儿患有唐氏综合征。

13 survivors   

幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 幸存者在救生艇上漂流了六天。
• survivors clinging to a raft 紧紧抓住救生筏的幸存者

14 vaccines   

疫苗，痘苗( vaccine的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His team are at the forefront of scientific research into vaccines. 他的小组处于疫苗科研的最前沿。
• The vaccines were kept cool in refrigerators. 疫苗放在冰箱中冷藏。

15 genetic   

adj.遗传的，遗传学的

参考例句：

• It's very difficult to treat genetic diseases.遗传性疾病治疗起来很困难。
• Each daughter cell can receive a full complement of the genetic information.每个子细胞可以收到遗传信息的一个完全补偿物。

16 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？