2006年VOA标准英语-HIV/AIDS Outlook in Asia Mixed

By Ron Corben
Bangkok
31 May 2006
 
A new report by the United Nations AIDS agency says India has overtaken South Africa as the country with the highest number of people infected with HIV/AIDS.   The UNAIDS report also says the epidemic¹ has spread in some Asia-Pacific nations, such as Burma and Vietnam, but slowed slightly in others.

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Over eight million people in Asia were living with the AIDS virus at the end of 2005, almost six million of them in India alone, the UNAIDS report finds.

Joana Merlin-Scholtes, the U.N. Resident Coordinator² for Thailand says while the epidemic shows signs of slowing in some regions, it still extracts a terrible toll³ in Asia.

"In Asia approximately 930,000 were newly infected with HIV/AIDS in 2005 while AIDS claimed an estimated 600,000 lives through the region," she says.

Merlin-Scholtes says the regional picture is mixed.

"HIV prevalence has declined in Cambodia and four states of India in 2005," she says. "It remains⁴ limited in Bangladesh, in the Philippines, in Indonesia and in Pakistan. [But] overall prevalence in China, Indonesia, Vietnam and Papua New Guinea is continuing to increase."

In Vietnam, AIDS has spread across the entire country, with 260,000 people infected. In Burma, facing one of the most serious epidemics⁵ in Asia, some 360,000 people are believed to be HIV positive. The report says the spread in both countries is fueled by poor preventive measures and lack of access to treatment. 

The report also emphasizes the particular vulnerability of Asian women.

Indonesian AIDS activist⁶, Frika Chia Iskandar, blames gender⁷ inequalities for rising infection rates.

"The low status of women remains too often the principle driver of HIV," she says. "In Asia, Asian culture that put women on the bottom of the agenda - this needs to change. We need to prioritize women; we need to empower women."

In Cambodia, women account for 47 percent of those living with AIDS - up 10 percent in less than a decade. In Thailand, more than 40 percent of all new HIV infections are women in long-term relationships, infected by their partner.

UNAIDS says the factors driving the spread of the virus across the region vary and urges countries to tailor their response.

It also warns against complacency. Thailand has long been seen as a success story, slowing infection rates from 140,000 a year to fewer than 20,000.

But Patrick Brenny, UNAIDS country coordinator in Thailand, says infection rates are rising among injecting drug users, men who have sex with men and migrants and more needs to be done.

"The glass is only half full," he says. "Public information has in many cases dropped off the radar⁸ screen - we have youth today whose 85 percent of them say HIV isn't an issue for me - we need to do more."

The Thai government plans to spend $900 million over the next five years to combat the pandemic and in China, where around 650,000 people are living with HIV, the government is now providing free anti-retroviral drugs. 

1 epidemic   

n.流行病；盛行；adj.流行性的，流传极广的

参考例句：

• That kind of epidemic disease has long been stamped out.那种传染病早已绝迹。
• The authorities tried to localise the epidemic.当局试图把流行病限制在局部范围。

2 coordinator   

n.协调人

参考例句：

• The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, headed by the Emergency Relief Coordinator, coordinates all UN emergency relief. 联合国人道主义事务协调厅在紧急救济协调员领导下，负责协调联合国的所有紧急救济工作。
• How am I supposed to find the client-relations coordinator? 我怎么才能找到客户关系协调员的办公室？

3 toll   

n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟)

参考例句：

• The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
• The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。

4 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

5 epidemics   

n．流行病

参考例句：

• Reliance upon natural epidemics may be both time-consuming and misleading. 依靠天然的流行既浪费时间，又会引入歧途。
• The antibiotic epidemics usually start stop when the summer rainy season begins. 传染病通常会在夏天的雨季停止传播。

6 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

7 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

8 radar   

n.雷达，无线电探测器

参考例句：

• They are following the flight of an aircraft by radar.他们正在用雷达追踪一架飞机的飞行。
• Enemy ships were detected on the radar.敌舰的影像已显现在雷达上。