VOA常速英语2008年-Liberia's Health Sector Faces Major Overhaul

By Nico Colombant
Bensonville, Liberia
11 March 2008

Liberia's health sector¹ is facing a rebuilding task of colossal² proportions after years of civil war and neglect left behind a destroyed infrastructure³ and very little staff. This created conditions for very low life expectancy⁴ and high maternal⁵ death rates. But efforts by the post-war government, volunteer Liberians and foreign aid agencies are slowly bringing about change. VOA's Nico Colombant reports from Bensonville, in a district of Liberia without a doctor.

Joseph Nyanton manually operates decades-old lab equipment at the Bensonville hospital, as there is no electricity, and more recent equipment disappeared during the war.

"During the war, they ransacked⁶ this place," he said. "You know the rebels, they came and took away everything. In fact, even the operation lights, they damaged it all. I think they did not even know what to do with it, but they just damaged it. You see."

But the hospital operates, even without a doctor, for the entire Careysburg district of about 65,000 people.

District health officer Rex Moses gives a tour of what is in name a hospital, but basically operates as a clinic. Women patients sit on wooden benches, many of them holding babies.

Moses says with the help of aid agencies and a new ambulance, he is able to save lives again. He gives the example of a woman and her baby from the nearby town of Harrisburg.

"After delivery, she started bleeding severely⁷. We call it post-partum hemorrhage," he said. "Luckily for us, the Africare vehicle went there on supervision⁸ and brought the woman to a distance that the ambulance could pick her up. And we did pick her up and immediately referred her to Monrovia. The information we are getting is that she is all right now. She received blood, about four pints⁹ of blood. And she is back in Harrisburg. The baby is bouncing all right, the baby is OK."

Basic health packages, including for pregnancy¹⁰ and infant care as well as malaria¹¹, are being offered for free, thanks to donor¹² help and the government making health spending its second priority in this year's budget, after education.

Moses says a plan to make the training of much needed doctors, nurses and midwives free as well, could be even more crucial.

"They are saying now it will be free of charge, absolutely free of charge. That is the message we are getting. That will encourage people to be trained and cut down the shortage of nurses and manpower in the country," he said. 'We were told that tests were to be given only in [the capital] Monrovia. But for the last test, they went all over the country to give the test."

In the meantime, volunteers, many of them jobless high-school dropouts looking for something to do, are being trained as community outreach specialists. These first line health consultants¹³ go to remote villages, often by foot, to teach about nutrition, basic sanitation¹⁴, family planning and preventative measures to combat common diseases, like malaria.

One of them, Martha K. Woheel, explains her motivation.

"What led me to want to be a volunteer is because our communities they are lacking. And then it is something concerning about health," she said. "So we have to educate them and it motivated me more, especially in the field of health."

One of 51 Liberian doctors in a country of more than two million people is Health Minister Walter Gwenigale.

"The three things that we want to take care of basically are; one, human resources for health, two, infrastructures¹⁵ for health, and three, the support system," he said.

Gwenigale has pleaded with foreign donors¹⁶ to allow Liberia's government to control more of the millions of dollars in health-related aid money so a more coordinated¹⁷, long-term approach can be set in motion.

Some foreign donors and U.N. agencies have expressed concern over whether the free health-care system now in practice for basic services, as well as the free training being planned, are viable¹⁸ in the long-run.

But Liberians, interviewed for this report, say they want as many lives to be saved as possible and as many health workers trained in a short amount of time, so that a nation and a health system very much in shambles¹⁹ can be rebuilt.

1 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

2 colossal   

adj.异常的，庞大的

参考例句：

• There has been a colossal waste of public money.一直存在巨大的公款浪费。
• Some of the tall buildings in that city are colossal.那座城市里的一些高层建筑很庞大。

3 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

4 expectancy   

n.期望，预期，（根据概率统计求得）预期数额

参考例句：

• Japanese people have a very high life expectancy.日本人的平均寿命非常长。
• The atomosphere of tense expectancy sobered everyone.这种期望的紧张气氛使每个人变得严肃起来。

5 maternal   

adj.母亲的，母亲般的，母系的，母方的

参考例句：

• He is my maternal uncle.他是我舅舅。
• The sight of the hopeless little boy aroused her maternal instincts.那个绝望的小男孩的模样唤起了她的母性。

6 ransacked   

v.彻底搜查( ransack的过去式和过去分词 )；抢劫，掠夺

参考例句：

• The house had been ransacked by burglars. 这房子遭到了盗贼的洗劫。
• The house had been ransacked of all that was worth anything. 屋子里所有值钱的东西都被抢去了。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

7 severely   

adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地

参考例句：

• He was severely criticized and removed from his post.他受到了严厉的批评并且被撤了职。
• He is severely put down for his careless work.他因工作上的粗心大意而受到了严厉的批评。

8 supervision   

n.监督，管理

参考例句：

• The work was done under my supervision.这项工作是在我的监督之下完成的。
• The old man's will was executed under the personal supervision of the lawyer.老人的遗嘱是在律师的亲自监督下执行的。

9 pints   

n.品脱( pint的名词复数 )；一品脱啤酒

参考例句：

• I drew off three pints of beer from the barrel. 我从酒桶里抽出三品脱啤酒。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Two pints today, please. 今天请来两品脱。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 pregnancy   

n.怀孕，怀孕期

参考例句：

• Early pregnancy is often accompanied by nausea.怀孕早期常有恶心的现象。
• Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of miscarriage.怀孕期吸烟会增加流产的危险。

11 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。

12 donor   

n.捐献者；赠送人；(组织、器官等的)供体

参考例句：

• In these cases,the recipient usually takes care of the donor afterwards.在这类情况下，接受捐献者以后通常会照顾捐赠者。
• The Doctor transplanted the donor's heart to Mike's chest cavity.医生将捐赠者的心脏移植进麦克的胸腔。

13 consultants   

顾问( consultant的名词复数 )； 高级顾问医生，会诊医生

参考例句：

• a firm of management consultants 管理咨询公司
• There're many consultants in hospital. 医院里有很多会诊医生。

14 sanitation   

n.公共卫生，环境卫生，卫生设备

参考例句：

• The location is exceptionally poor,viewed from the sanitation point.从卫生角度来看，这个地段非常糟糕。
• Many illnesses are the result,f inadequate sanitation.许多疾病都来源于不健全的卫生设施。

15 infrastructures   

n.基础设施( infrastructure的名词复数 )；基础结构；行政机构；秘密机构

参考例句：

• Public transportation termini and depots are important infrastructures for a city. 公交场站设施是城市重要的基础设施。 来自互联网
• The increasingly fast urbanization process requires more and more infrastructures. 我国城市化进程不断加快，对城市基础设施的需求也越来越大。 来自互联网

16 donors   

n.捐赠者( donor的名词复数 )；献血者；捐血者；器官捐献者

参考例句：

• Please email us to be removed from our active list of blood donors. 假如你想把自己的名字从献血联系人名单中删去，请给我们发电子邮件。
• About half this amount comes from individual donors and bequests. 这笔钱大约有一半来自个人捐赠及遗赠。 来自《简明英汉词典》

17 coordinated   

adj.协调的

参考例句：

• The sound has to be coordinated with the picture. 声音必须和画面协调一致。
• The numerous existing statutes are complicated and poorly coordinated. 目前繁多的法令既十分复杂又缺乏快调。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

18 viable   

adj.可行的，切实可行的，能活下去的

参考例句：

• The scheme is economically viable.这个计划从经济效益来看是可行的。
• The economy of the country is not viable.这个国家经济是难以维持的。

19 shambles   

n.混乱之处；废墟

参考例句：

• My room is a shambles.我房间里乱七八糟。
• The fighting reduced the city to a shambles.这场战斗使这座城市成了一片废墟。