VOA常速英语2008年-World Malaria Day Highlights Disease's Impact

By Carol Pearson
Washington
24 April 2008
  

The United Nations observes World Malaria¹ Day April 25th in support of international efforts to eliminate the disease. Organizations involved in that battle say the tide is turning in their favor. VOA's Mil Arcega narrates² the story.

The United Nations' statistics on malaria are grim: the disease kills about one million people a year. And it claims the life of a child every 30 seconds – 3,000 children under the age of five every day.

Sub-Saharan Africa is the hardest hit region and the disease seriously impacts the economies of severely³ afflicted⁴ countries.  Malaria remains⁵ a disease of the poor. But the United Nations Children's Fund, the World Bank and other organizations, report progress is being made in the fight against it.

John Paul Clark is a malaria specialist for the World Bank. He says malaria is both treatable and preventable, "It has been an advocacy struggle to get leaders to really embrace this idea that malaria is an unnecessary evil."

Clark says political leaders finally understand that the death rate, the toll⁶ of illness and the economic impact of malaria are problems that can be avoided. 

He says there is now the political will to control the disease. And countries, rich and poor, are finally working together to eradicate⁷ it.

"We have seen a turnaround and a drop in malaria cases and in child mortality in at least four countries in Africa [Rwanda, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Zambia] and we're beginning to see some positive movement in indicators⁸ in other countries," Clark said.

And that, Clark adds, has had an impact on funding.  He says resources have more than tripled, and donors⁹ large and small are responding. 

They are responding in terms of funding research for vaccines¹⁰, and at the local level, in providing bed nets treated with insecticide to protect people from mosquitoes that carry the parasite¹¹ that causes malaria.

At the United Nations headquarters in New York, a group of private and international organizations met Wednesday (April 23rd) to discuss the campaign to bring malaria under control. Ann Veneman is the head of the United Nations Children's Fund or UNICEF.

She projects global production of bed nets will reach 110 million this year, up from 30 million just four years ago. 

Bed nets have proven to reduce malaria transmissions by 20 percent.

A number of organizations are working to help buy those nets so they can be distributed where they are most needed.

Tim Wirth is president of the United Nations Foundation:

"The program, overall, is called 'Nothing but Nets' - buy a net, save a life.  As Ann pointed¹² out, this is the most effective program in the area of malaria that we know about," Wirth said.

Religious groups and even the National Basketball Association in the United States are involved in raising money to buy bed nets. Other efforts include raising funds for anti-malarial treatments. World organizations are looking at decreasing the death rate from malaria by 50 percent by 2010, and to one day eliminate it as a major health problem.

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 narrates   

v.故事( narrate的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• It narrates the unconstitutional acts of James II. 它历数了詹姆斯二世的违法行为。 来自辞典例句
• Chapter three narrates the economy activity which Jew return the Occident. 第三章讲述了犹太人重返西欧后的经济活动。 来自互联网

3 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。

4 afflicted   

使受痛苦，折磨( afflict的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• About 40% of the country's population is afflicted with the disease. 全国40%左右的人口患有这种疾病。
• A terrible restlessness that was like to hunger afflicted Martin Eden. 一阵可怕的、跟饥饿差不多的不安情绪折磨着马丁·伊登。

5 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。

6 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。

7 eradicate   

v.根除，消灭，杜绝

参考例句：

• These insects are very difficult to eradicate.这些昆虫很难根除。
• They are already battling to eradicate illnesses such as malaria and tetanus.他们已经在努力消灭疟疾、破伤风等疾病。

8 indicators   

（仪器上显示温度、压力、耗油量等的）指针( indicator的名词复数 )； 指示物； （车辆上的）转弯指示灯； 指示信号

参考例句：

• The economic indicators are better than expected. 经济指标比预期的好。
• It is still difficult to develop indicators for many concepts used in social science. 为社会科学领域的许多概念确立一个指标仍然很难。

9 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》

10 vaccines   

疫苗，痘苗( vaccine的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His team are at the forefront of scientific research into vaccines. 他的小组处于疫苗科研的最前沿。
• The vaccines were kept cool in refrigerators. 疫苗放在冰箱中冷藏。

11 parasite   

n.寄生虫；寄生菌；食客

参考例句：

• The lazy man was a parasite on his family.那懒汉是家里的寄生虫。
• I don't want to be a parasite.I must earn my own way in life.我不想做寄生虫，我要自己养活自己。

12 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。