VOA标准英语2012--Doctors, Researchers on Lookout for New Flu Outbreak

 

Doctors, Researchers on Lookout¹ for New Flu Outbreak

The H1N1 influenza² virus infected about 61 million people during the 2009 pandemic. Dave Cornwell was one of them. “I had a fever, I was achy, you know, flu-like symptoms," he described. "And while I was in the emergency room for several hours, someone finally came in and said it looks like piggy flu.”

H1N1 -- also known as swine flu -- claimed about 18,000 lives worldwide. What began in April 2009 in North America quickly spread around the world. Seven years earlier, it was an epidemic³ of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome⁴, or SARS, which originated in Southeast Asia.

"There were about 8,000 cases of SARS in 2002-3, although it was severe but not extensive. And H1N1 wasn’t severe but very widespread around the world," said Dr. Kevin De Cock. He is the director of the Center for Global Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia.

“We can’t always depend on severity and extent of spread being separated like that. We are prepared, but there is still a lot of work to be done," De Cock stated. "We cannot take anything for granted.”

Dr. Isabelle Nuttall is a top World Health Organization official in Geneva. She says a lot of progress has been made... in preparing for another epidemic, but not nearly enough, despite commitments to be ready for a serious outbreak by 2012.

"Countries committed to work to implement⁵ surveillance systems, to be able to have good laboratories in place, to be able to report and inform their population, containment⁶ measures if need be, to be able to stop the spread of diseases," said Nuttall. "I do realize it’s a lot of work but we are not there yet.”

Outbreaks are common around the world. Dr. De Cock at the CDC says people should be vigilant⁷, but not unduly⁸ worried, and he points to H5N1 virus, or avian influenza, as an example. “It seems not to be transmissible from person to person; nonetheless, infectious diseases can change in their epidemiology," he explained.

Earlier this year, an outbreak of influenza in Mexico prompted people to line up en masse to get vaccinated⁹. Ninety percent of the reported 1,600 cases of flu were from the H1N1 strain, which has also been on the upsurge in northwestern India.

WHO has set up the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network, and, at its Geneva headquarters, a Strategic Health Operation Center. In this high-tech¹⁰ facility, experts from all medical fields regularly gather to monitor and analyze¹¹ the latest data on global disease outbreaks -- ready to act at the first sign of the next epidemic. 

1 lookout   

n.注意，前途，瞭望台

参考例句：

• You can see everything around from the lookout.从了望台上你可以看清周围的一切。
• It's a bad lookout for the company if interest rates don't come down.如果利率降不下来，公司的前景可就不妙了。

2 influenza   

n.流行性感冒，流感

参考例句：

• They took steps to prevent the spread of influenza.他们采取措施
• Influenza is an infectious disease.流感是一种传染病。

3 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。

4 syndrome   

n.综合病症；并存特性

参考例句：

• The Institute says that an unidentified virus is to blame for the syndrome. 该研究所表示,引起这种综合症的是一种尚未确认的病毒。
• Results indicated that 11 fetuses had Down syndrome. 结果表明有11个胎儿患有唐氏综合征。

5 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。

6 containment   

n.阻止，遏制；容量

参考例句：

• Your list might include such things as cost containment,quality,or customer satisfaction.你的清单上应列有诸如成本控制、产品质量、客户满意程度等内容。
• Insularity and self-containment,it is argued,go hand in hand.他们争论说，心胸狭窄和自我封闭是并存的。

7 vigilant   

adj.警觉的，警戒的，警惕的

参考例句：

• He has to learn how to remain vigilant through these long nights.他得学会如何在这漫长的黑夜里保持警觉。
• The dog kept a vigilant guard over the house.这只狗警醒地守护着这所房屋。

8 unduly   

adv.过度地，不适当地

参考例句：

• He did not sound unduly worried at the prospect.他的口气听上去对前景并不十分担忧。
• He argued that the law was unduly restrictive.他辩称法律的约束性有些过分了。

9 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？

10 high-tech   

adj.高科技的

参考例句：

• The economy is in the upswing which makes high-tech services in more demand too.经济在蓬勃发展，这就使对高科技服务的需求量也在加大。
• The quest of a cure for disease with high-tech has never ceased. 人们希望运用高科技治疗疾病的追求从未停止过。

11 analyze   

vt.分析，解析 (=analyse)

参考例句：

• We should analyze the cause and effect of this event.我们应该分析这场事变的因果。
• The teacher tried to analyze the cause of our failure.老师设法分析我们失败的原因。