VOA标准英语2009年-WHO: Millions of Children Need Not Die Fro

By Lisa Schlein
Geneva
02 November 2009

The World Health Organization and United Nations Children's Fund say better nutrition and access to immunization can save millions of children from dying of pneumonia¹. The two agencies are launching a new action plan to tackle this killer² disease.

 
Vara Lakshmi holds her 8-month-old son Darshan, a pneumonia patient, at a press conference prior to the opening of Pedicon 2009 in Bangalore, India (File)
The release of this new strategy coincides with the first international World Pneumonia Day. Pneumonia is the world's leading cause of death among children. It kills nearly two million children under age five every year.

U.N. agencies say pneumonia is responsible for one in four child deaths, more than HIV/AIDS, malaria³ and measles⁴ combined. Every 15 seconds a child dies of pneumonia. More than 98 percent of these deaths occur in 68 developing countries.

The World Health Organization and the UN Children's Fund say they know how to prevent these deaths. The tools are available. They just have to be implemented⁵.

The two agencies are proposing a three-pronged Global Action Plan. This involves strategies for protecting, preventing and treating children who become ill with pneumonia.

In the area of protection, UNICEF Senior Health Advisor⁶, Anne Golaz, says the promotion⁷ of adequate nutrition, particularly breast feeding, is key to improving the child's natural defenses.

"Under nourished children and those not exclusively breast-fed for the first six months of life are at high risk of developing pneumonia and other disease as well," she said. "Breastfeeding supports the infant's immune system. So, intervention⁸ of promoting exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life-no solid food, no other liquid could result in up to 23 percent reduction in pneumonia. Just this intervention."

Shamim Qazi is a pneumonia expert at the WHO Department of Child and Adolescent Health and Development. In the realm of prevention, he says vaccination⁹ is the most important intervention against diseases that cause pneumonia, such as whooping¹⁰ cough and measles.

"After that, if the child does get pneumonia, we know we can treat these children with very inexpensive antibiotics¹¹ and methodologies  wherever it is needed at community level, at health facility level, at hospital level depending upon the severity of the disease," said Qazi. "At present these are not really implemented in that manner in many countries."

Dr. Qazi says the Global Action Plan aims to expand coverage¹² to 90 percent of all relevant vaccines¹³.

The UN health agencies say it could cost about $39 billion over the next six years to scale up the recommended measures in the 68 high-risk developing countries.

The agencies say though this may sound like a lot, it really is not, considering that $39 billion will cut child pneumonia deaths by 65 percent by the year 2015.

1 pneumonia   

n.肺炎

参考例句：

• Cage was struck with pneumonia in her youth.凯奇年轻时得过肺炎。
• Pneumonia carried him off last week.肺炎上星期夺去了他的生命。

2 killer   

n.杀人者，杀人犯，杀手，屠杀者

参考例句：

• Heart attacks have become Britain's No.1 killer disease.心脏病已成为英国的头号致命疾病。
• The bulk of the evidence points to him as her killer.大量证据证明是他杀死她的。

3 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。

4 measles   

n.麻疹，风疹，包虫病，痧子

参考例句：

• The doctor is quite definite about Tom having measles.医生十分肯定汤姆得了麻疹。
• The doctor told her to watch out for symptoms of measles.医生叫她注意麻疹出现的症状。

5 implemented   

v.实现( implement的过去式和过去分词 )；执行；贯彻；使生效

参考例句：

• This agreement, if not implemented, is a mere scrap of paper. 这个协定如不执行只不过是一纸空文。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• The economy is in danger of collapse unless far-reaching reforms are implemented. 如果不实施影响深远的改革，经济就面临崩溃的危险。 来自辞典例句

6 advisor   

n.顾问，指导老师，劝告者

参考例句：

• They employed me as an advisor.他们聘请我当顾问。
• The professor is engaged as a technical advisor.这位教授被聘请为技术顾问。

7 promotion   

n.提升，晋级；促销，宣传

参考例句：

• The teacher conferred with the principal about Dick's promotion.教师与校长商谈了迪克的升级问题。
• The clerk was given a promotion and an increase in salary.那个职员升了级，加了薪。

8 intervention   

n.介入，干涉，干预

参考例句：

• The government's intervention in this dispute will not help.政府对这场争论的干预不会起作用。
• Many people felt he would be hostile to the idea of foreign intervention.许多人觉得他会反对外来干预。

9 vaccination   

n.接种疫苗，种痘

参考例句：

• Vaccination is a preventive against smallpox.种痘是预防天花的方法。
• Doctors suggest getting a tetanus vaccination every ten years.医生建议每十年注射一次破伤风疫苗。

10 whooping   

发嗬嗬声的，发咳声的

参考例句：

• Whooping cough is very prevalent just now. 百日咳正在广泛流行。
• Have you had your child vaccinated against whooping cough? 你给你的孩子打过百日咳疫苗了吗？

11 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。

12 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。

13 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。