VOA标准英语2010年-Renewed Effort Underway to Eradicate P

A child being vaccinated² against polio

A new effort is underway to vaccinate¹ people in the four countries where  polio outbreaks still occur. If this effort is successful, polio could be eradicated⁴ worldwide.   Derek Henkle met the 88-year-old Australian man behind the program, which is credited with preventing millions of disabilities and saving countless⁵ lives.

As a boy growing up in Pakistan, Zak Ahmad dreamed of coaching a football team.  At the age of 21, he moved to Australia to pursue that dream. But one week after arriving, his life suddenly changed.

"My both legs, they were not able to move," said Zak Ahmad. "So doctors, they just said that it would be a miracle if you come out of it, because in medical science they don't have any cure for this disease."

Ahmad had contracted polio, a disease that paralyzes - and sometimes kills - its victims.

"I thought that my dreams were over now," he said. "I can't do anything in my whole life. And I was really much shocked."

Ahmad's experience is not unique. Hundreds of thousands of people used to get polio, a virus that spreads as easily as the common cold.

 Polio is no longer a concern in Western countries because of mass inoculations starting in the 1950s.

But children in developing nations lived under the constant risk of infection until more recently, when an international service club took aim at eliminating the disease.

It's here in the small Australian town of Nambour that the battle to eradicate³ polio began. It was one man's vision that if just two drops, from a bottle like this one, could prevent children from getting the disease, that global eradication⁶ could be within reach.  Now, 20 years on, they say they're three years away from realizing that vision."

"I picked up a Reader's Digest, and there I read that for $100 million the World Health Organization had eradicated small pox," said Sir Clem Renouf. "And this fired my imagination. I thought, 'My gosh, we could do something like that.'"

Sir Clem Renouf, then president of Rotary⁷ International, convinced Rotarians across the globe to unite against the disease by raising money to fight the virus and by volunteering their time toward that effort.

"Suddenly, we realized that we had the capacity, and the encouragement, as Rotary clubs to do major projects, then the eradication of polio was no longer an impossible dream," he said.

Rotary International pledged to raise 120 million U.S. dollars to pay for immunizing children against the disease. Rotarians have since raised more than $900 million to end polio.

Rotary is now a partner with the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for a renewed effort to eradicate polio.
The W.H.O. says since 1988, more than two billion children around the world have been immunized against polio.

The campaign is focusing on Pakistan, Afghanistan, India and Nigeria - the four countries where the disease remains⁸.

Jenny Horton helps coordinate⁹ Rotary's efforts in those countries.

"We have teams of people just going door-to-door ensuring that every child under five is vaccinated with drops," said Jenny Horton. "So it's a huge program, but the effects of that program are just enormous in preventing disability."

For Zak Ahmad, just one week after getting polio, his immune system began to fight the virus. He credits the oral polio vaccine¹⁰ he received as a child for giving him a new lease on life.

"In the morning I wake up, I was sleeping, and I just turn around and my body was just moving normally," he said.

The end of polio may be within reach.  When the campaign first started, the World Health Organization says the disease paralyzed more than 1,000 children every day. So far this year, only 561 cases have been reported.

"We will keep going 'til the end," she said. "We are there; we don't want any more children disabled.  It's really, really important that every time we reach every child with polio drops."

Tiny drops, which are now bringing big hopes of eliminating the second disease ever from the globe.
 

1 vaccinate   

vt.给…接种疫苗；种牛痘

参考例句：

• Local health officials then can plan the best times to vaccinate people.这样，当地的卫生官员就可以安排最佳时间给人们接种疫苗。
• Doctors vaccinate us so that we do not catch smallpox.医生给我们打预防针使我们不会得天花。

2 vaccinated   

[医]已接种的，种痘的，接种过疫菌的

参考例句：

• I was vaccinated against tetanus. 我接种了破伤风疫苗。
• Were you vaccinated against smallpox as a child? 你小时候打过天花疫苗吗？

3 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。

4 eradicated   

画着根的

参考例句：

• Polio has been virtually eradicated in Brazil. 在巴西脊髓灰质炎实际上已经根除。
• The disease has been eradicated from the world. 这种疾病已在全世界得到根除。

5 countless   

adj.无数的，多得不计其数的

参考例句：

• In the war countless innocent people lost their lives.在这场战争中无数无辜的人丧失了性命。
• I've told you countless times.我已经告诉你无数遍了。

6 eradication   

n.根除

参考例句：

• The eradication of an established infestation is not easy. 根除昆虫蔓延是不容易的。
• This is often required for intelligent control and eradication. 这经常需要灵巧的控制与消除。

7 rotary   

adj.(运动等)旋转的；轮转的；转动的

参考例句：

• The central unit is a rotary drum.核心设备是一个旋转的滚筒。
• A rotary table helps to optimize the beam incidence angle.一张旋转的桌子有助于将光线影响之方式角最佳化。

8 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。

9 coordinate   

adj.同等的，协调的；n.同等者；vt.协作，协调

参考例句：

• You must coordinate what you said with what you did.你必须使你的言行一致。
• Maybe we can coordinate the relation of them.或许我们可以调和他们之间的关系。

10 vaccine   

n.牛痘苗，疫苗；adj.牛痘的，疫苗的

参考例句：

• The polio vaccine has saved millions of lives.脊髓灰质炎疫苗挽救了数以百万计的生命。
• She takes a vaccine against influenza every fall.她每年秋季接种流感疫苗。