2006年VOA标准英语-West Africans Try Treated Bed Nets, New Drugs t

By Nico Colombant
Dakar
13 December 2006

As events in Washington mark the U.S. government effort to combat malaria¹ in Africa, West Africans, themselves, are busy applying techniques they were unfamiliar² with and trying new drugs. VOA's Nico Colombant reports.

 
Marietou Gueye registers a new bednet 
Here near Senegal's Atlantic coastline, in the small suburb, Darou Salam City - population 9,000 - men are being shown for the first time how to treat bed nets.

A local association, called "Jappalente", which means intercommunity help, also sells a kit³ with a button-sized insecticide tab and chemical for about 10 cents.

 
Maimouna Fall learns how to wear gloves for treating bednet 
Wearing masks and plastic gloves, women are taught how to pound the tablet and mix it with the chemical and half a liter of water. They then pour the solution and massage⁴ it into colorful bed nets they bring, before laying them out to dry.

Speaking in the local Wolof language, Asdou Sene says insecticide-treated bed nets will make the community much safer. She says women are surprised at how easy and cheap it is to do themselves.

Looking on, local nurse Guidiadie Saw is also impressed.

He says the more people learn this technique, the better. Nearly three-quarters of disease-related hospital visits in the area are attributed to malaria.

 
Diara Mbaye shows how to treat a bednet 

A quarter of hospital deaths in Senegal are caused by the mosquito-borne disease, which also accounts for 28 percent of child deaths, according to recent estimates.

The cost of the kit being sold here is subsidized by the U.S. government, as part of the President's Malaria Initiative. The targeted programs also include spraying homes and giving preventive treatment to pregnant women, who, with children, are the most vulnerable to malaria.

Countries outside the program are also trying new approaches.

These include nearby Burkina Faso, where World Health Organization help has led to a pilot program called Home Malaria Management.

A recent drug called Coartem is being provided to community clinics, throughout that country for about 20 cents, much lower than its regular cost.

Coartem is a combination therapy that includes artemisinin, a derivative⁵ of the sweet wormwood plant that is used in China to treat fever, and has proved highly successful in treating severe cases of malaria.

For many years in West Africa, foreign aid agencies continued to distribute the relatively⁶ cheap drug chloroquine to combat malaria, even though it had become largely ineffective because of mosquito resistance.

Back in Senegal, another bed net treatment session is taking place at a community center in Thies. Coumba Faye looks on in awe⁷ and tells other women she wishes she had known about this sooner.

She tells them how one of her nine children had to be taken to the hospital because of really bad malaria. She says, if she had known what she knows now, a lot of hardship would have been avoided.

1 malaria   

n.疟疾

参考例句：

• He had frequent attacks of malaria.他常患疟疾。
• Malaria is a kind of serious malady.疟疾是一种严重的疾病。

2 unfamiliar   

adj.陌生的，不熟悉的

参考例句：

• I am unfamiliar with the place and the people here.我在这儿人地生疏。
• The man seemed unfamiliar to me.这人很面生。

3 kit   

n.用具包，成套工具；随身携带物

参考例句：

• The kit consisted of about twenty cosmetic items.整套工具包括大约20种化妆用品。
• The captain wants to inspect your kit.船长想检查你的行装。

4 massage   

n.按摩，揉；vt.按摩，揉，美化，奉承，篡改数据

参考例句：

• He is really quite skilled in doing massage.他的按摩技术确实不错。
• Massage helps relieve the tension in one's muscles.按摩可使僵硬的肌肉松弛。

5 derivative   

n.派(衍)生物；adj.非独创性的，模仿他人的

参考例句：

• His paintings are really quite derivative.他的画实在没有创意。
• Derivative works are far more complicated.派生作品更加复杂。

6 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

7 awe   

n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧

参考例句：

• The sight filled us with awe.这景色使我们大为惊叹。
• The approaching tornado struck awe in our hearts.正在逼近的龙卷风使我们惊恐万分。