HEALTH REPORT - Polio Threatens Africa

HEALTH REPORT - Polio Threatens Africa
By Cynthia Kirk

Broadcast: Wednesday, June 30, 2004

This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

Health officials say the spread of polio from Nigeria into ten other countries in Africa threatens years of progress to end the disease.

Polio weakens the muscles and nerves. Severe cases can cause loss of movement and sometimes death. Young children are most often the victims. Polio is caused by a virus that is usually spread through water that contains waste from an infected person.

In nineteen-ninety-eight, the World Health Organization and other agencies launched the Global Polio Eradication¹ Initiative. This campaign has reduced new cases by ninety-nine percent. Polio is still also found in Afghanistan, Egypt, India and Pakistan.

The goal has been to end polio by next year. But the W.H.O. says five times as many children in west and central Africa have gotten polio so far this year compared to the same period last year. Around two-hundred children have been paralyzed in Nigeria since late last year.

That was when the current situation began. Some Islamic leaders in the state of Kano, in northern Nigeria, told the public that the vaccine² that prevents polio was unsafe. They said it was part of a Western plot to harm them.

Concern spread, and polio vaccination³ efforts halted. Soon, polio cases appeared in nearby countries that had been free of the disease.

Before last year, Nigeria and Niger were the only countries south of the Sahara with polio. Since then, the virus has been found in Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon and Central African Republic. Chad, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Togo have also had new infections. Scientists linked all these cases genetically⁴ to Nigeria.

The same is true with the first case of polio in Sudan in more than three years. Last month a child became paralyzed in the Darfur area of western Sudan. Darfur already has a humanitarian⁵ crisis. Arab fighters supported by the government have been destroying villages of black African Muslims to crush a rebellion.

In Nigeria, Kano state officials announced in May that they would restart polio vaccination efforts. Campaigns are being organized for twenty-two African countries this October and November. That is the season when polio cases are highest. The goal is to vaccinate⁶ more than seventy-million children.

The VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk.

1 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。

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 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。

4 genetically   

adv.遗传上

参考例句：

• All the bees in the colony are genetically related. 同一群体的蜜蜂都有亲缘关系。
• Genetically modified foods have already arrived on American dinner tables. 经基因改造加工过的食物已端上了美国人的餐桌。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 基因与食物

5 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

6 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。