African Sleeping Sickness
78 非洲睡眠病在撒哈拉沙漠南部国家猖獗蔓延
DATE=8-6-01
TITLE=DEVELOPMENT REPORT - African Sleeping Sickness
BYLINE=Nancy Steinbach
（Startat 59")this is the voa special english Developement report.
African Sleeping Sickness is once again threatening many countries south of the Sahara Desert.
The disease 1 is caused by the (1)trypanosome (2)parasite 2. The parasite enters the human body through the bite of the (3)tsetse fly. Doctors say it takes very few parasites 3 to (4)infect a person. If the infection 4 is not treated, a person's defense 5 system cannot destroy the parasite, and the person dies.
Sleeping sickness has been affecting people in Africa for thousands of years. It is found only in African tsetse flies. Researchers do not know why tsetse flies carry the disease in Africa, but not in other parts of the world.
Sleeping sickness has been a major problem in Africa two other times in the past century. The disease was almost destroyed in the Nineteen-Sixties, but has since returned. The (5)World Health Organization says twenty to fifty percent of people suffer the disease in some villages in Angola, Sudan and the (6)Democratic Republic of Congo.
About forty-five-thousand sleeping sickness infections 6 are reported to the W-H-O every year. But officials say as many as four-hundred-thousand people probably (7)suffer from the disease each year.
Medical (8)experts say early treatment can cure African Sleeping Sickness. But it is difficult to tell if a person has the disease. Early signs include high body temperature, muscle 7 pain and a tired feeling. The signs become worse later when the parasite (9)invades the brain. Then the (10)victim acts strangely or sleeps all day. Treating sleeping sickness is costly 8. The drug used to treat the early signs of the disease is also used to kill a parasite that affects some people with the disease (11)AIDS. This has increased its price. The drug used in more severe 9 Sleeping Sickness infections is a poison 10 that can kill up to ten percent of the patients who use it. A safer medicine had stopped being produced recently. However, the W-H-O negotiated 11 an agreement with a drug company to provide all the medicines to treat sleeping sickness free of charge.
Sleeping sickness experts say more people in Africa should be examined for the disease. They also say that leaders of affected 12 countries must improve national health care systems to prevent the disease.
This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Nancy Steinbach.
(1) trypanosome [trai'pAnRsQm] n. [动]锥体虫
(2) parasite [pAr[sait] n. 寄生虫, 食客
(3) tsetse [tetsi] n. [昆]舌蝇,采采蝇
(4) infect [in'fekt] vt. [医] 传染, 感染
(5) World Health Organization 世界卫生组织
(6) Democratic Republic of Congo 刚果民主主义共和国
(7) suffer [sQf[] vt. 遭受, 经历, 忍受; vi. 受痛苦, 受损害
(8) expert [eksp:t] n. 专家, 行家, [军](特等)射手
(9) invade [in'veid] vt. 侵略, 侵袭, 拥挤
(10) victim [viktim] n. 受害人, 牺牲者, 牺牲品
(11) AIDS [eidz] abbr. 爱滋病, 获得性免疫功能丧失;
- The doctors are trying to stamp out the disease.医生正在尽力消灭这种疾病。
- He fought against the disease for a long time.他同疾病做了长时间的斗争。
- The lazy man was a parasite on his family.那懒汉是家里的寄生虫。
- I don't want to be a parasite.I must earn my own way in life.我不想做寄生虫，我要自己养活自己。
- These symptoms may be referable to virus infection rather than parasites. 这些症状也许是由病毒感染引起的，而与寄生虫无关。
- Kangaroos harbor a vast range of parasites. 袋鼠身上有各种各样的寄生虫。
- He is suffering from a virus infection.他受到病毒感染。
- White blood cells fight infection.白血球抵抗感染。
- The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
- The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。
- rising rates of MRSA infections in hospitals 医院中抗甲氧西林金黄色葡萄球菌感染病例不断增长的发生率
- Malnourished children are more likely to succumb to infections. 营养不良的儿童更有可能死于感染。
- It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
- This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。
- The severe storm did for most of the crops.猛烈的暴风雨毁掉了大部分庄稼。
- The pace was too severe to be kept up for long.跟上这步伐太难了，无法持久。
- The bottle is labelled "Poison".瓶上标明“有毒”。
- Don't allow evil thoughts to poison young people's minds.不允许邪念毒害青年。
- The government negotiated with the opposition party over the new law. 政府就新法与反对党进行了协商。
- By careful strategy she negotiated a substantial pay rise. 她精心策划后，谈妥了大幅增加工资的事。