VOA常速英语2008年-Report: TB Infection Rates in Africa Have Doubl

By Scott Bobb
Johannesburg
24 March 2008

As the world marks international Tuberculosis¹ day, a new study has revealed a frightening rise in the past 15 years in tuberculosis cases in Africa. Correspondent Scott Bobb reports from our Southern Africa Bureau in Johannesburg.

International experts (from South Africa and the United States), writing in the New England Journal of Medicine on the eve of TB Day, say Africa is facing the worst tuberculosis epidemic² since the invention of antibiotics³.

They note that Africa, which is home to 11 percent of the world's population, carries 29 percent of the world's TB cases and 34 percent of its TB-related deaths. And they quote statistics of the World Health Organization as saying that from 1990 to the year 2005, the incidence of TB more than doubled, mainly in southern, eastern and central African nations.

The head of an HIV research unit at Johannesburg's Witswatersrand University, Francois Venter, says a major cause is HIV/AIDS which weakens a person's ability to fight disease.

"The risk of acquiring TB if you're HIV positive is so huge, coupled with the fact that there's so much TB floating around in this community that conventional approaches to prevention and treatment are not going to win," Venter said.

TB is a highly infectious disease that is spread through the air usually by the cough of an infected person. More than three million people in Africa are living with TB and a half-million die from it each year.

The report says that health care systems in many countries have difficulty responding to the threat because of a lack of funding, personnel, drugs and laboratories.

Venter volunteers at hospitals in less wealthy parts of South Africa.

"The numbers of patients with TB are astronomical," he said. "Every morning we do a ward⁴ around here and it's just TB, TB and more TB, a dozen different forms but all of it TB. It's scary to me that there doesn't seem to be a plan."

Tuberculosis is treatable but diagnosis⁵ can take a long time during which period the victim is in the community spreading the disease.

Experts say that many TB victims die before they are diagnosed and many who are diagnosed die anyway because they begin treatment too late.

Another aggravating⁶ factor is the emergence⁷ of TB strains that are resistant⁸ to most drugs. Almost all victims of these strains are HIV positive and few of them are ever cured.

Venter says progress against HIV/AIDS is being made thanks to greater funding, aggressive education campaigns and the growing availability of anti-retroviral drugs to fight the virus.

"We learned from the HIV program that if we support patients actively⁹ - and this means support groups, free parcels (of food), counseling, explanations - people will take their treatments," he said.

He says current TB programs are not working and as a result governments and policy makers¹⁰ need to declare a TB emergency similar to that for HIV/AIDS.

1 tuberculosis   

n.结核病，肺结核

参考例句：

• People used to go to special health spring to recover from tuberculosis.人们常去温泉疗养胜地治疗肺结核。
• Tuberculosis is a curable disease.肺结核是一种可治愈的病。

2 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。

3 antibiotics   

n.（用作复数）抗生素；（用作单数）抗生物质的研究；抗生素，抗菌素( antibiotic的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• the discovery of antibiotics in the 20th century 20世纪抗生素的发现
• The doctor gave me a prescription for antibiotics. 医生给我开了抗生素。

4 ward   

n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开

参考例句：

• The hospital has a medical ward and a surgical ward.这家医院有内科病房和外科病房。
• During the evening picnic,I'll carry a torch to ward off the bugs.傍晚野餐时，我要点根火把，抵挡蚊虫。

5 diagnosis   

n.诊断，诊断结果，调查分析，判断

参考例句：

• His symptoms gave no obvious pointer to a possible diagnosis.他的症状无法作出明确的诊断。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做一次彻底的调查分析。

6 aggravating   

adj.恼人的，讨厌的

参考例句：

• How aggravating to be interrupted! 被打扰，多令人生气呀！
• Diesel exhaust is particularly aggravating to many susceptible individuals. 许多体质敏感的人尤其反感柴油废气。

7 emergence   

n.浮现，显现，出现，（植物）突出体

参考例句：

• The last decade saw the emergence of a dynamic economy.最近10年见证了经济增长的姿态。
• Language emerges and develops with the emergence and development of society.语言是随着社会的产生而产生，随着社会的发展而发展的。

8 resistant   

adj.(to)抵抗的，有抵抗力的

参考例句：

• Many pests are resistant to the insecticide.许多害虫对这种杀虫剂有抵抗力。
• They imposed their government by force on the resistant population.他们以武力把自己的统治强加在持反抗态度的人民头上。

9 actively   

adv.积极地，勤奋地

参考例句：

• During this period all the students were actively participating.在这节课中所有的学生都积极参加。
• We are actively intervening to settle a quarrel.我们正在积极调解争执。

10 makers   

n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式）

参考例句：

• The makers of the product assured us that there had been no sacrifice of quality. 这一产品的制造商向我们保证说他们没有牺牲质量。
• The makers are about to launch out a new product. 制造商们马上要生产一种新产品。 来自《简明英汉词典》