VOA慢速英语2011--Simple Steps Can Save Millions of Newbor

Health Report - Simple Steps Can Save Millions of Newborn Lives

健康报道 - 简单措施就能挽救数百万新生儿生命

This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

这里是美国之音慢速英语健康报道。

The latest estimate is that more than three million babies die each year within the first month of life. A report says this is down from 4.6 million deaths in two thousand nine. Still, newborn babies represent about forty percent of all deaths in children under five years old.

最新估计每年有超过300万婴儿在出生后的一个月内死亡。有报道称，这是从2009年的460万下降到这一数字。然而，新生儿死亡人数仍占到了5岁以下儿童死亡人数的40%。

Experts say five countries have the lowest survival rates: India, Nigeria, Pakistan, China and the Democratic Republic of Congo. India has one-fourth of all deaths within the first four weeks after birth.

专家表示，印度、尼日利亚、巴基斯坦、中国以及刚果民主共和国五个国家新生儿存活率最低。印度占到了全球新生儿出生后的前四周内死亡人数的1/4。

The report is from the private humanitarian 1 group Save the Children and the World Health Organization. Dr. Joy Lawn from Save the Children says simple actions can help save lives.

这份报告来自个人人道主义组织救助儿童会和世界卫生组织。来自救助儿童会的乔伊·罗恩（Joy Lawn）博士表示，一些简单措施就能帮助挽救生命。

JOY LAWN: “Not delivering the baby onto a dirty surface, drying the baby, keeping the baby warm and feeding the baby straight away resulted in almost a halving 2 of newborn deaths in very rural areas in India.”

罗恩：“不要把婴儿分娩到脏污场所，擦干婴儿，保持婴儿身体暖和，立即喂养婴儿使印度非常偏远地区新生儿死亡人数减少了近一半。”

Field studies show that these simple steps could prevent at least two-thirds of deaths in newborns each year. Dr. Lawn says having trained medical workers present would also save many babies and mothers.

罗恩博士表示，具备训练有素的医务人员也能挽救许多婴儿和母亲的生命。

JOY LAWN: "If you had the health workers with the right equipment and the right drugs in these settings, definitely maternal 3 and neonatal deaths -- child deaths -- could be halved 4.”

罗恩：“在这种环境下，如果有携带合适设备及药物的医务人员，孕产妇和新生儿死亡人数绝对可以减半。”

And the equipment does not have to be complex. A student team at Rice University in Houston, Texas, developed a low-cost device to assist newborns with breathing problems. The device is called infantAIR. The researchers plan to test it at a hospital in Malawi, then develop training programs for nurses and hospital technicians.

设备并不需要太复杂。德州休斯敦市莱斯大学的一个学生小组研制出了一种低成本设备，用于协助呼吸困难的新生儿呼吸。该设备被称为infantAIR。研究人员计划在马拉维的一家医院对该设备进行测试，然后制定出护士和医院技术人员的培训计划。

The World Health Organization estimates that about fifteen hundred pregnant women die each day, or about one a minute. Millions of others suffer infections or injuries from pregnancy 5 and childbirth.

世界卫生组织估计每天约有1500名孕妇死亡，相当于每分钟有一名孕妇死亡。数百万人在妊娠和分娩中遭受感染或受伤。

A recent conference in Washington presented winning ideas in a competition called "Saving Lives at Birth." There were more than six hundred entries. The top honors went to Dr. Michelle McIntosh and her team at Monash University in Australia.

华盛顿最近召开的一次会议展示了《保障母婴生命安全》这一竞赛的获奖创意，这次大赛收到了600多份参赛作品。澳大利亚莫纳什大学米歇尔·麦金托什（Michelle McIntosh）博士及其团队获得了最高荣誉。

They plan to manufacture a dry powder containing the drug oxytocin. Oxytocin reduces the bleeding that causes twenty-five percent of all maternal deaths. The powder would be used in a spray that the mother could inhale 6 into her lungs.

他们计划生产一种含有催产素的干粉。催产素可以减少产后流血，而产后出血占到了孕产妇死亡原因的25%。

The contest organizers included the US Agency for International Development and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

本次大赛主办方为美国国际开发署和比尔及梅林达盖茨基金会。

There is evidence that programs to reduce newborn deaths are starting to make progress, especially in parts of South Asia. But progress is slower in Africa. The new report says Africa could need more than one hundred fifty years to reach the current survival rates in the United States or Britain.

有证据显示，减少新生儿死亡项目已经开始取得进展，特别是在南亚部分地区。但在非洲进展非常缓慢。这份新报告称，非洲还需要超过150年，才能达到美国或英国当前的新生儿存活率水平。

And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report. I’m Jim Tedder 7.

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Contributing: Vidushi Sinha