2006年VOA标准英语-New Evidence Exonerates Foreign Medics in Libya

By David McAlary
Washington
06 December 2006

New biological evidence casts more doubt on Libyan government charges against six imprisoned¹ Bulgarian and Palestinian medical workers accused of deliberately² infecting several-hundred Libyan children with the AIDS virus. The medics face the death penalty if convicted, but as VOA's David McAlary reports from Washington, laboratory tests support their claims of innocence³.

Libyan security guards stand in front of the dock during trial of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor in Tripoli, 04 Nov 2006

Researchers from the Universities of Oxford⁴ and Rome provide an alibi⁵ for the five Bulgarian nurses and one Palestinian physician.

Libya says the six purposely injected 426 children with HIV in 1998 at Al-Fateh hospital in Benghazi, shortly after they arrived in the country. Their trial ended in Tripoli on November 4 and a verdict is expected December 19.

But the British and Italian scientists say their laboratory analysis of virus samples from several of the children indicate that the Libyan accusation⁶ is untrue.

University of Oxford co-researcher Oliver Pybus puts it this way.

"We tried to do the analysis in lots of different ways and use lots of different approaches, but pretty much every way that we tackled the problem, we were getting a probability of pretty close to zero that these outbreaks had actually started since the arrival of the Bulgarian medical staff," he explained.

Pybus and his colleagues came to this conclusion by studying the genes⁷ in the Libyan children's AIDS virus samples. They looked at the genetic⁸ sequences, the particular patterns of genes, to reconstruct the exact history of the outbreak. Analyzing⁹ genetic mutations that had occurred over time allowed them to work out when different outbreaks took place.

Their findings, published in the journal Nature, indicate that by 1998 about 40 percent of the children were already infected by an HIV variant¹⁰ that had been spreading locally for several years. Pybus's team says it is related most closely to strains from West Africa, suggesting it came from the many migrant workers in Libya.

"This shows that the strain that had given rise to the outbreaks at Al-Fateh Hospital in Benghazi had been circulating for some time prior to the arrival of the Bulgarian medical staff in 1998," said Pybus.

An expert who has provided forensic¹¹ HIV evidence in more than 30 such cases in the past 15 years praises the research. Thomas Leitner of the U.S. government's Los Alamos National Laboratory issued a statement calling it compelling evidence that the outbreak had occurred before the accused could have started it.

The findings add to a growing body of evidence exonerating¹² the six. For example, a European study of blood samples from several of the Libyan children found that many were also infected with hepatitis B and C, suggesting poor hygiene¹³ at the Libyan hospital.

"These kinds of infections are most like to have been hospital acquired infections for which there is no evidence to link any specific individuals," said epidemiologist Janine Jagger, who heads the University of Virginia's International Healthcare Worker Safety Center, and calls the Libyan trial very troubling.

"What is really needed at this point is as loud an international outcry as is possible to save these people from the firing squad," she concluded.

1 imprisoned   

下狱，监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He was imprisoned for two concurrent terms of 30 months and 18 months. 他被判处30个月和18个月的监禁，合并执行。
• They were imprisoned for possession of drugs. 他们因拥有毒品而被监禁。

2 deliberately   

adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地

参考例句：

• The girl gave the show away deliberately.女孩故意泄露秘密。
• They deliberately shifted off the argument.他们故意回避这个论点。

3 innocence   

n.无罪；天真；无害

参考例句：

• There was a touching air of innocence about the boy.这个男孩有一种令人感动的天真神情。
• The accused man proved his innocence of the crime.被告人经证实无罪。

4 Oxford   

n.牛津（英国城市）

参考例句：

• At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
• This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。

5 alibi   

n.某人当时不在犯罪现场的申辩或证明；借口

参考例句：

• Do you have any proof to substantiate your alibi? 你有证据表明你当时不在犯罪现场吗？
• The police are suspicious of his alibi because he already has a record.警方对他不在场的辩解表示怀疑，因为他已有前科。

6 accusation   

n.控告，指责，谴责

参考例句：

• I was furious at his making such an accusation.我对他的这种责备非常气愤。
• She knew that no one would believe her accusation.她知道没人会相信她的指控。

7 genes   

n.基因( gene的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• You have good genes from your parents, so you should live a long time. 你从父母那儿获得优良的基因，所以能够活得很长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Differences will help to reveal the functions of the genes. 它们间的差异将会帮助我们揭开基因多种功能。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 生物技术的世纪

8 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。

9 analyzing   

v.分析；分析( analyze的现在分词 )；分解；解释；对…进行心理分析n.分析

参考例句：

• Analyzing the date of some socialist countries presents even greater problem s. 分析某些社会主义国家的统计数据，暴露出的问题甚至更大。 来自辞典例句
• He undoubtedly was not far off the mark in analyzing its predictions. 当然，他对其预测所作的分析倒也八九不离十。 来自辞典例句

10 variant   

adj.不同的，变异的；n.变体，异体

参考例句：

• We give professional suggestions according to variant tanning stages for each customer.我们针对每位顾客不同的日晒阶段，提供强度适合的晒黑建议。
• In a variant of this approach,the tests are data- driven.这个方法的一个变种，是数据驱动的测试。

11 forensic   

adj.法庭的，雄辩的

参考例句：

• The report included his interpretation of the forensic evidence.该报告包括他对法庭证据的诠释。
• The judge concluded the proceeding on 10:30 Am after one hour of forensic debate.经过近一个小时的法庭辩论后，法官于10时30分宣布休庭。

12 exonerating   

v.使免罪，免除( exonerate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

13 hygiene   

n.健康法，卫生学 （a.hygienic）

参考例句：

• Their course of study includes elementary hygiene and medical theory.他们的课程包括基础卫生学和医疗知识。
• He's going to give us a lecture on public hygiene.他要给我们作关于公共卫生方面的报告。