VOA标准英语2012--Study: Cleaning Umbilical Cord Saves Lives

Study: Cleaning Umbilical Cord Saves Lives

Simple use of an inexpensive disinfectant could save hundreds of thousands of newborn lives each year.
That's the conclusion of recent studies from South Asia.
The umbilical cord is usually cut right after birth.
The World Health Organization recommends leaving the stump¹ alone.
But that raw stump can be a pathway for potentially fatal infection if the cord is cut with an unsterilized instrument, or if the baby is born in an unsanitary environment.
Newly-published research led by scientists at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland, involved about 30,000 newborn babies in Bangladesh. In one-third, the umbilical cord stump was left untreated. In the other births the stump was cleaned with an antiseptic called chlorhexidine, either one time or daily for a week after birth.
The survival rate was significantly higher when the antiseptic was used, says senior author Prof. Abdullah H. Baqui. "What we found is, in the single cleansing² there's a 20 percent lower neonatal mortality. In the seven-day cleansing arm, there's only six percent lower mortality, which is not statistically³ significant."
Two other recent studies had similar findings - one in Nepal, and one in Pakistan, published online along with Baqui's paper in The Lancet.
Baqui says treating the umbilical cord stump with chlorhexidine antiseptic is a safe and inexpensive strategy that could put a big dent⁴ in infant mortality rates, especially among the 60 million or so babies who are born at home each year.
"This is a simple intervention⁵. It has the potential to avert⁶ about half a million deaths globally [each year], so I think it's something simple and we should just go ahead and implement⁷."
In a commentary published with Baqui's paper, experts at the UCL Institute for Global Health in London say it could be a challenge to introduce the chlorhexidine treatment on a large scale in some regions. But if it can be implemented⁸, they believe the disinfectant treatment would be as successful in the real world as it has been in these studies.

1 stump   

n.残株，烟蒂，讲演台；v.砍断，蹒跚而走

参考例句：

• He went on the stump in his home state.他到故乡所在的州去发表演说。
• He used the stump as a table.他把树桩用作桌子。

2 cleansing   

n. 净化(垃圾) adj. 清洁用的 动词cleanse的现在分词

参考例句：

• medicated cleansing pads for sensitive skin 敏感皮肤药物清洗棉
• Soap is not the only cleansing agent. 肥皂并不是唯一的清洁剂。

3 statistically   

ad.根据统计数据来看，从统计学的观点来看

参考例句：

• The sample of building permits is larger and therefore, statistically satisfying. 建筑许可数的样本比较大，所以统计数据更令人满意。
• The results of each test would have to be statistically independent. 每次试验的结果在统计上必须是独立的。

4 dent   

n.凹痕，凹坑；初步进展

参考例句：

• I don't know how it came about but I've got a dent in the rear of my car.我不知道是怎么回事，但我的汽车后部有了一个凹痕。
• That dent is not big enough to be worth hammering out.那个凹陷不大，用不着把它锤平。

5 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。

6 avert   

v.防止，避免；转移(目光、注意力等)

参考例句：

• He managed to avert suspicion.他设法避嫌。
• I would do what I could to avert it.我会尽力去避免发生这种情况。

7 implement   

n.(pl.)工具，器具；vt.实行，实施，执行

参考例句：

• Don't undertake a project unless you can implement it.不要承担一项计划，除非你能完成这项计划。
• The best implement for digging a garden is a spade.在花园里挖土的最好工具是铁锹。

8 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