VOA标准英语2010年-AIDS 2010 to Focus on Eastern Europe a

Joe DeCapua 23 March 2010

In July, the world’s largest AIDS conference will be held in Vienna, Austria.  About 25 thousand people are expected to attend the meeting, which will focus on HIV/AIDS in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

The theme of the 18th International AIDS conference – also known as AIDS 2010 – is Rights Here, Rights Now.

Robin¹ Gorna, executive director of the International AIDS Society, one of the organizers of the event, says, “We believe one of the most important barriers to scaling up AIDS services, in Eastern Europe and Central Asia in particular, is the lack of respect for human rights.  If we don’t get a handle on the human rights issues we won’t be able to turn the epidemic² around.”

Drugs and sex

The AIDS conference will address the rights issues of controversial and often shunned³ members of society, such as intravenous drug abusers.

 

Aids 2010

She says, “We know that we have fantastic evidence that harm reduction services – needle and syringe programs, opiate substitution therapy, methadone – works to stop people who use drugs from acquiring HIV.  And to keep people with HIV who use drugs alive and healthy.  Tragically⁴, in many countries in Eastern Europe, those services simply aren’t available and in Russia they’re illegal.”

Another group that will receive more attention at AIDS 2010 is men having sex with men.

"That’s an issue in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, but also an issue increasingly in African countries.  And where we see the rights of men who have sex with men abused, we see the epidemic begin to take off.  As well as the individual suffering caused to people who are despised, discriminated⁵ against and criminalized,” says Gorna.

The term – men having sex with men - was created by epidemiologists in the 1990s and is often used in clinical research.

This year’s AIDS conference will continue to emphasize the plight⁶ of women and girls, who make up the majority of HIV/AIDS cases.

“HIV is the leading cause of death amongst women of reproductive age,” she says, Where women are abused, or raped⁷ or subject to gender⁸ discrimination and inequality, then their ability to protect themselves from HIV is really limited.

East meets West

The executive director of the International AIDS Society says Vienna will play an important role in the fight against the epidemic.

“We’ve decided⁹ to have the conference in Vienna because it’s a very important place, which links Eastern Europe and Western Europe.  And it’s for a long time been the crossroads there,” Gorna says.

She adds, “One of the things I don’t think the world has woken up to is quite how severe and growing the HIV epidemic is in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

AIDS 2010 is expected to be the most technically¹⁰ advanced of the international AIDS conferences. Many of the plenary sessions will be webcast.  And conference hubs are being set up in three cities in Eastern Europe, allowing people to gather to watch and interact with conference participants.  The hubs will be located in Almaty, Kazakhstan; the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, and Russia’s capital, Moscow.

The 18th International AIDS Conference will be held in Vienna July 18th through the 23rd.
 

1 robin   

n.知更鸟，红襟鸟

参考例句：

• The robin is the messenger of spring.知更鸟是报春的使者。
• We knew spring was coming as we had seen a robin.我们看见了一只知更鸟，知道春天要到了。

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 shunned   

v.避开，回避，避免( shun的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She was shunned by her family when she remarried. 她再婚后家里人都躲着她。
• He was a shy man who shunned all publicity. 他是个怕羞的人，总是避开一切引人注目的活动。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 tragically   

adv. 悲剧地，悲惨地

参考例句：

• Their daughter was tragically killed in a road accident. 他们的女儿不幸死于车祸。
• Her father died tragically in a car crash. 她父亲在一场车祸中惨死。

5 discriminated   

分别，辨别，区分( discriminate的过去式和过去分词 )； 歧视，有差别地对待

参考例句：

• His great size discriminated him from his followers. 他的宽广身材使他不同于他的部下。
• Should be a person that has second liver virus discriminated against? 一个患有乙肝病毒的人是不是就应该被人歧视？

6 plight   

n.困境，境况，誓约，艰难；vt.宣誓，保证，约定

参考例句：

• The leader was much concerned over the plight of the refugees.那位领袖对难民的困境很担忧。
• She was in a most helpless plight.她真不知如何是好。

7 raped   

v.以暴力夺取，强夺( rape的过去式和过去分词 )；强奸

参考例句：

• A young woman was brutally raped in her own home. 一名年轻女子在自己家中惨遭强暴。 来自辞典例句
• We got stick together, or we will be having our women raped. 我们得团结一致，不然我们的妻女就会遭到蹂躏。 来自辞典例句

8 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。

9 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

10 technically   

adv.专门地，技术上地

参考例句：

• Technically it is the most advanced equipment ever.从技术上说，这是最先进的设备。
• The tomato is technically a fruit,although it is eaten as a vegetable.严格地说，西红柿是一种水果，尽管它是当作蔬菜吃的。